The Seeker and the Savant
by Ruthie Smith
Summary: Mara is headstrong, impulsive and blessed with a power she can't quite understand or control. Not really ideal when working for the Savant Net, but things are about to get shaken up even more when she rescues Will Benedict from a sinister organisation. Stubborn and good-looking, he annoys her; she frustrates him. A recipe for disaster? Perhaps. A chance for romance? Definitely...
1. Running

Will Benedict ran like hell from the cafe he'd just been in, questions spinning through his brain like tumbleweed. Just behind him, his pursuers pounded the pavement at a frantic rate, their footsteps matching the frantic beating of his heart. What were they after? Why did they need him?

His gift was working perfectly; he could sense that these men were trouble. A fat lot of good that did him _now, _when he was running for his life.

He sprinted around yet another corner, skidded slightly on the paving stones, and pedalled wildly to keep going. He'd thought that a trip to London would be a chance to pick up hot girls- or who knew, his soulfinder- not to be picked up himself by a load of thugs.

There _were_ better things that he could imagine himself doing at the moment.

Will sprinted around yet another corner and found himself in the middle of a shopping mall. Girls took one look at the tall, powerfully-built foreigner who was running down the road like a bat out of hell and either fluttered their eyelashes or got out of the way sharpish. Will was glad for that, at least. He didn't think he could cope with anything else right now.

Muffled bangs and screams behind told him that his captors were gaining on him. Breath scorching his lungs and setting his legs on fire, Will leapt a bench in one, and then used his power to raise it into the air- had anyone seen?- and fling it behind at his would-be kidnappers.

Too late to wonder whether he'd hit anyone.

The mall gave way to yet another street- small, narrow. He was soon out of it, and felt a sense of relief dawning on him. Had he lost them?

"He went down there! Stupid Yank!"

"Now we've got him!"

Will spared a precious breath to choke out a swear word. They were right. This was a dead end. A tiny square fronted by grimy windows faced him, the empty glass mocking his despair. No! It wouldn't end like this! Where were his brothers? They'd been walking behind him only minutes ago...had they been captured as well?

Quickly, he eyed up a window- the one which looked the weakest, paint flaking off it, hopefully worm-ridden. This was going to cost him a lot of strength. He focussed on the window panes so hard it hurt.

Then he tore them out of the wall.

Glass flew everywhere as the windows shattered, fragments flying everywhere. Will covered his face with his arms, listening to his breath rasping in and out of his throat, feeling the energy leave his body, and hearing with no small satisfaction the screams of his followers. It sounded pleasingly like he'd done them a lot of injury.

"Get him! Where's my gun?"

Oops. Time to go. Will vaulted through the empty window, swinging his legs up and into the room beyond just as an ear-splitting bang ricocheted around the bricks. Pain set fire to his shoulder and he toppled forwards, muffling a yell of agony as he crashed onto the carpeted floor.

"Did we get him?" Their voices, breathing heavily, were coming from far away now, echoing in his ears.

"Dunno. But he's not getting out of there alive. You know...it's _that _place."

"Better go then. I hate it there...smells of death."

"Only to Savants."

What?

"Yeah...Come on."  
What place? What was going to happen to him? Had they put some sort of sedative in the bullet? Will tried to flex his fingers, and was dully surprised to find that they only moved grudgingly, as though they were moving through treacle. Slowly- agonisingly so- he forced his arm up to his shoulder, an inch at a time, and felt the downy feathers of a dart stuck there.

"Oh no." He breathed.

The door opened, spilling buttery light over his face.

Blackness closed over him.


	2. Looking for Answers

I did not like breaking into houses.

The imposing facade of the building's entrance- the full shebang, with a balcony, a huge set of wooden double doors, and several Gothic spires on top- was scary enough, but add to that an annoying partner and a life-or-death mission, and things suddenly got a whole lot more complicated. Why, I told myself for what had to the thousandth time, _why _had I agreed to do this?

"Psst! Come on, tortoise!"

I gritted my teeth and looked sideways at my mission partner, Penny, who was now taking the liberty of raising his eyebrows at me. Penny- short for Percy, nobody knew why- Grogan was six foot, Scottish, and blessed with the kind of temperament you might expect of a vole. That is, curious and bad-tempered. I appreciated that he was a master at his job-even his Savant powers seemed adapted for this line of work (though you had to wonder _how_ he'd come to be so good) but he wasn't the kind of person you grew to _like_.

Anyway, it was his 'thesis' that if you looked as though you were supposed to be there, nobody would question what you were doing. _Confidence is the key, Mara. _So far, it had worked. Although we hadn't even gotten into the bloody place yet.

He demonstrated this thesis now, striding cockily up to the door and rapping smarty on the wood. I scowled at him, trying to quell the irritation by endlessly reciting French verbs to myself- irritation with your mission partner at the very start of a mission was probably a bad idea. Huddled on the pavement, I shuffled inside my thin jacket and tried to stop the autumn chill from seeping into my bones. I _hated _London, and London in the winter was even worse. Give me the rolling countryside and a log fire any day. Even better, give me New Zealand's jagged skyscape and summer winds- where I'd be going as soon as I got the chance. I sighed unhappily, hunching my shoulders against the biting weather.

_Come here, now! We're supposed to be acting as a team._

Fat chance of that. He was even annoying inside my head.

_Yes, yes, Sensei._

I trotted up the stairs and forced a smile onto my face just as the door opened and a short, grey-haired woman poked her head around it. "Hello?"

"Hello! My name is Mr MacDonald and this is my partner, Miss Inkson. I believe we called in advance? We've come for an inspection."

In case you were wondering, a Mr Ian MacDonald and Miss Michelle Inkson _did _exist. They were from the government and they were supposed to be in our places right now, carrying out a routine inspection in the name of the glorious health and safety department. However at the moment they were being briefed by one of us- i.e. a Savant with hypnotic powers- on what they were supposed to have seen whilst here, giving us time to find the more important things that lay hidden here. Life-saving things, for example.

The simple fact was- or so we'd been told- that a virus had recently been hitting the Savant population, and hitting it hard. Nobody was entirely sure what it was about- or what caused it- but what it did was make us extremely ill and then, quicker than you could say 'horror' it drained all our power away, leaving us effectively 'normal' humans. For a people who prided themselves on their special skills, it was the worst of fates. Just thinking of it was enough to bring a spine-running shiver to the skins of most people, myself included. Add to _that_ mix a mysterious scheme, funded by some extremely wealthy- and suspicious- Savants and based in this building -which had taken off about the same time as the sickness- and you got something extremely suspicious going on. The Savant Net needed some people to find out their plans; we'd volunteered (something which I was starting to regret already).

This was, in fact, why we were investigating.

Comfortable in his role of Ian MacDonald, Penny flourished his clipboard; the woman's face cleared and she gave a welcoming smile. "Ah! Of course! Please, come right in."

She led us into a small reception, decorated in what I think they call 'minimalist' style: there were two chairs, a reception desk, and a coffee table. White walls. Grey floor. So far, so bad.

"Please wait just one moment whilst I call our manager- Mr Knockton. Oh...wait. He's not on the line..."

I hoped that Knockton would be a knockout- or at least criminally stupid. We weren't going to be talking to him anyway; he wouldn't tell us anything we didn't know. But his papers, helpfully liberated from his office by us, would.

As soon as we were sure that manager-dude wasn't in the office, but cosily ensconced in the Staff Room having his tea break, Penny leaned forwards with a confidential smile. "It's fine. Really. We don't want Mr Knockton disturbing himself. Michelle and I will just have a quick look around and be on our way."

"Oh, are you sure?" The secretary dithered for a moment, and my partner flashed her his most winning smile in return.

"Quite sure. We won't be more than ten minutes. In fact," Penny paused as if the idea had only just occurred to him. "In fact, we'll walk up and meet him on his way down, and tell him not to worry."  
"Oh." The secretary was clearly flustered. "Very well, then."

"Just tell us where to go. Where is his office?"

I loitered back while she gave us directions, checking out the different routes available. The big, grand door on the right was obviously the way to 'official' offices, which was where we'd be starting our investigation. The smaller one on the _right..._cleaning staff? Kitchens? Or something more sinister? I stepped towards it, examining the padlock on it- a heavy-duty affair with two keyholes. Blimey, someone must really hate cleaning. Or, something else- something rather more suspicious than cleaning- was going on...

"Miss Inkson!" The secretary's cooing call jolted me from my reverie. "Please, step this way."

Penny glanced across the room at my interested face and the padlocked door, and decided to intervene like the pro he was.

"Let's go! Pleasure meeting you, Miss...?"

"Smith."

"Pleasure meeting you, Miss Smith."

As I passed her, the newly-named Miss Smith nodded at me- and then her eyes unfocussed and her face drifted into a dazed smile as Penny wiped her mind from any recollection of us. I shivered as I passed her- staring right at me was the reason that I couldn't trust him.

_Mara Cooper! We can't afford to nod off that that! You could blow our cover! Our only aim is to get those papers, remember? _

_Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, _I huffed as we marched down a more luxurious corridor, patterned with actual wallpaper and a thick blue carpet. Doors flashed by, but Penny ignored them all, instead turning onto the staircase.

_Well, I don't know why you even volunteered for this. _I didn't either. To stop Fred grabbing all of the glory for once? All of _his _missions seemed to go perfectly. Mine? Tommy's? Not so much. I cringed at the memory of The Failure, where the house I'd been in had almost collapsed on top of everyone. That had been a nightmare. This time, I was determined to prove that I _could _do it, and, what's more, do it well.

And speaking of doing it well...

_Penny! _I yelled at him mentally. _STOP! _The chandelier above us spun and creaked alarmingly as Penny snapped to a halt and glared at me. _What?_

_Look. Armed guard. _I motioned around the corner, pointing to the place where we were headed. It was a bit like a scene from a film- about four thugs with guns were patrolling in front of the door.

I looked sideways at Penny, and he met my eyes. For once, I knew we were both thinking exactly the same thing: who had snitched on us? I was sure that these guards weren't a regular feature- they hadn't been included in the briefing, for one thing- and they probably weren't going to take kindly to me and Penny waltzing in there and sifting through their boss' paperwork. Damn!

_Can you use your power? _That was Penny, anxiously looking for solutions.

_Not without bringing the house down. It's not that focussed. _Oh, the irony: I wasn't looking for a repeat of last time. _Can't you?_

_I can't put them on permanent mind-wipe! Or..._

_Or what? _I demanded furiously, taking a vindictive pleasure in watching him wince as my voice drilled into his skull. _Come on, time is running out! Someone's going to find us any second!_

I watched him run a hand swiftly through his thick ginger curls, concentrating hard. _Okay. This is how it's going to go. You create a distraction a floor below, and then I'll be able to go in and shift through the paperwork._

_That'd work...I guess. But we'd only have limited time- they'll realise that they've been fooled. Be quick; I'll try and get to the office as well- meet you there._

_Fine. Hurry, though, Kiwi._

_Will do, McJock. _

I shot him a glare- the things I did in the name of justice (like being patronised for my proud New Zealand heritage!) and all that- and then retreated down the corridor, taking the stairs two at a time and turning off into a side-corridor which had another staircase at the other end. I marched on double speed until I came to an office which was half-open, their owner probably having just gone down to make a cup of tea. It was a bog-standard office: loads of filing cabinets, a desk, pictures of the grandchildren, that kind of thing. Perfect.

Standing in the middle of the room, I closed my eyes, breathing evenly, concentrating, making sure I could keep control of my power. Then I held up my hands, and spread them out in an arc. My whole body began to tingle furiously, and when I opened my eyes again, I was ready.

Slowly- I had to do this slowly, or it'd get away from me and wreak havoc- I turned my head, fixing my gaze on the table.

It splintered, buckling under an invisible force; then, suddenly and shockingly, it exploded, raining bits of wood everywhere. Oops.

Shouts rose up from neighbouring offices, but I wasn't done yet. The filing cabinets went next- bang, bang, bang, the individual drawers shooting off their hinges, spraying paperwork everywhere. The clock: smash. The pictures were dust on the floor.

_MARA! _STOP!

Penny's shout tore through me, snapping me back to myself and breaking my concentration. The explosions stopped; I took deep breaths like a man drowning, panic sending my head into a spin. Oh my god, that had been close; too close. This was why I hated using my power- the magic was like a drug, setting every sense alight, but the price I paid was the loss of control. My ability was too strong for me, and more often than not that resulted in major damage.

Above me, I could hear shouts and footsteps as the guards- and the officeworkers- yelled in shock and suspicion at the mini-Armageddon that I was constructing in the building. Right-mission accomplished; time to beat it, and fast.

Using the ruined desk as leverage, I boosted myself up and out of the office, flying down the corridor as fast as adrenaline would let me before doors started to open. The other staircase, I knew, from the blueprints that we'd studied, led the long way round to the Big Cheese's office. The guards would want to get there quickly; they'd use the other way.

I slammed myself around the corner as the doors started to open and a stream of one, two, three blue-suited guards poured into the space, guns at the ready. I winced- one was still upstairs, dammit!

"Who's there?" One of them barked at the office. The colleagues began cooing together, like a flock of gossiping pigeons. "Draisey- status report!"

A tall, wiry man poked his head into the office. "Empty."

"Was that our prisoner?" Another guard asked, popping up behind the first and waving his gun in a mildly ridiculous way. "Was this guy trying to get him out?"

"Maybe." The first said gruffly. From my vantage point at the end of the corridor, I could see that he had a scruffy beard, whilst the second had piercingly blue eyes. I decided to call them Beardy and Blue. "Okay, this is how it's going to roll. I'll tell John to keep an eye on the prisoner, and you and me go and track him down."

Blue's eyes roved disbelievingly over the room. "He did _all this_? D'you reckon that they took papers? The office worker?"

He looked incredulous, but what other explanation was there short of TNT? The idea of magic was just crazy. Heh.

"Alright, here's how it's gonna roll. Draisey- guard the room, in case he comes back. Dirty Savant. You wanna call Knockton?

The word hit me like a bullet. Savant? _Savant? _What did they know about Savants? They were clearly mundane. I bit my lip on a swear word and hoped like hell that Penny had managed to get into the manager's office.

"I don't want to bother you; I'll call him. He's got those people coming round in about ten minutes to check on the prisoner..."

Beardy nodded and strode off; I heard him calling to Blue, who jogged behind him like an overenthusiastic puppy. I heard footsteps racing off down the stairs. I waited until they'd gone- only poor ickle Draisey left to guard the trashed room- and then shakily levered myself off the wall, grabbing my clipboard and sprinting up the staircase, the skirt causing serious hampering issues. Next time- if there ever was a next time after the way things were going- I'd be wearing _trousers, _for pity's sake!

Upstairs, almost all of the office doors had banged open and multiple pairs of goggle eyes followed me as I marched down the corridor. I needed to get rid of them somehow.

"Who is she?" One whispered loudly to another. I straightened up, giving my widest smile. I had to control my voice; a Kiwi accent always magically appeared when I got stressed, and Inkson was most definitely British. "Hello, my name is Ma-Michelle Inkson. I was sent here by the government to report on any misdemeanours or discrepancies which go on in the workplace- and I've noticed that there have been a few recently. If one of you would care to give me a witness report, and I can pass it on to your manager as soon as possible."

Immediately, people started to back away, muttering about being 'busy', and doors started to shut, as I'd hoped they would. Nothing got you fired quicker than filling out a witness report for your boss about how your workplace wasn't up to scratch. Within minutes, the corridor was empty.

I quietly cursed to myself. This thing was falling apart around our ears. Sooner or later, the guards would find out that nobody had broken in, and that the real occupant of that office was in fact getting tea. If they didn't, then he or she would come up to find their room a warzone, and would quickly press the panic button. That would then lead to the fake inspectors...and then our cover would be blown.

I walked, almost ran down the corridor to where the manager's office awaited me. Unlike the other doors, this one was impressively adorned with a shiny brass plaque reading 'H. Knockton' and a wood polished to an almost eye-watering shine. This guy was obviously a big cheese, having guards to protect his office. But where was the last one? I hoped that he'd followed the others down to the cellars to join the fruitless search for a potential destruction-maniac. Where was Penny? Hopefully, he'd have taken my cue and would be inside.

Well, let's get cracking- there were some papers to find. And they had to be found before these unexpected visitors came in- oh, ten minutes.

I wiped sweaty palms on my skirt and turned the cool metal handle. The door whispered open.

I was in!


	3. Illness and Will

The first thing that hit me was the unbelievable luxury of the place. My feet sank into an almost springily plush carpet, which was tastefully (surprising, given that most villains in films didn't go for that kind of thing) matched with cream-and-gold wallpaper. Many chairs, countless mirrors (obviously Knockton _did_ fancy himself a knockout), fireplace, kettle, you name it, he had it. They cluttered the floor right up to the wide, ornate desk which was crammed chock full of paperwork.

Where Penny was standing, riffling through a sheaf of notes.

He jumped guiltily as I opened the door, and slammed the notes down on the table again. His face was completely white.

"Well, looks like you made it." He commented as I walked in. I sniffed at his neutral tone- and then noticed the unconscious guard lying sprawled just inside the door, arms akimbo and mouth hanging wide open. A large china vase lay propped against his stomach. Talk about inconspicuous! Was he trying to get us arrested or what?!

"_What part of 'subtlety' did you not understand in the plan, Percy MacGregor?"_ I asked in a furious whisper. The paper on the table stirred gently in an invisible breeze.

"Er...well when you-did your thing...I went and ran towards the guard, telling them to go and help. I said I had to talk to the manager...he wouldn't budge...I used my telekinesis to smash an urn against his temple and dragged him in. Pretty easy, really." He added, with a modest little shrug that made me want to punch him. The Scottish accent just made it more annoying.

Well, at least it explained the vase. I glanced at the guard again- and then looked away, queasiness blossoming in my stomach. I hated violence. Hypocritical, yes, but sadly inescapable.

That, though, just made me more angry.

"Thank you, egghead of the century." I almost-snarled, trying to keep my voice low. "Hopefully you'll think about that _before_ I put myself in a life-and-death situation for you next time."

"Er-well..."

"Have you found something?" I cut across his blustering, uninterested in any sort of excuse. Percy McGregor was now firmly in my bad books, and I mentally vowed that this would be the last time I'd be putting myself forward for _anything _until I found out who I'd be working with.

"Yeah, I have, actually." He grinned at me, though I was pleased to see that his colour hadn't come back yet. "Here, there's a receipt for this Institute collaborating with a few shady characters..."

"Savants?" I asked sharply, thinking of the conversation downstairs.

"Yup. Busted! And there's something on the hiring of the guards from a guy named 'Mr Paris'. Interesting name, eh?"

"Yeah... sounds suspicious. Look, Penny, we'd better go. I completely trashed that office. Somebody's going to set the alarm off sooner or later."

Just then, I heard a soft _thump _vibrate around the room. I stilled immediately, hoping to God that nobody was knocking on the manager's door. That was our escape route cut off; the last thing we needed. When they saw the guard, then they'd raise the alarm. Too late!- I remembered that two new people were coming in five-ten?- minutes. I glanced at Penny; he looked as scared as me, for once.

"Shh!" I hissed, putting a finger to my lips. The office fell into a deadly silence. I could hear my breath whooshing in and out of my lungs; the beat of my heart.

_Thump. _And again: _thump thump. _

I almost collapsed with relief; it wasn't coming from the main door at all, but from another one which was set in the very corner of the room, almost in shadow. It couldn't be the cleaning staff, could it? A secret passageway so they wouldn't have to be seen going into through the main entrance? The mysterious case of the cleaners? Or could it be something more sinister- a prisoner, for instance?

_I'm going to find out what it is._ I informed Penny. Cowardly to the last, he nodded, and let me go ahead. I worried about whether it was an attacker- my own power was infinitely more deadly than any knife, but I didn't think I'd be able to use it against them- but if it was a prisoner, then that was something altogether more serious. Was this the 'something' that was going to be shown to those two visitors?

The door was locked, but I summoned the smallest amount of my power I could, and grabbing a cushion and placing it over the lock, I concentrated.

It still made a sound which was shockingly loud in the stillness of the office; Penny jumped like a rabbit at the gunshot-like crack. "Are you alright over there?"

"Yes, just blowing up the lock. You know, like any normal person would break into a room." I told him.

The cushion was smoking; I tore it away from the hole just as it burst into flame, and jumped up and down on it. At last, I could find out what had cost us so much hassle. Holding the smouldering cushion in my fingertips, I grabbed the handle and pulled.

It was not at all what I had expected.

Behind the door was a small cupboard, probably usually used for storing -cleaning equipment? Guns? I don't know- things! Instead there was a man. A man in the cupboard!

_Everything okay? _Penny demanded anxiously.

_Uuuh... _I couldn't stop looking at this prisoner. He was lying, eyes closed, ignominiously, against the wall. I judged him to be fairly bulky, like a rugby player, and pretty tall, going by the way he was squished into the space available- a pair of jeans and a rugby top occupied most of the cupboard. A shock of dark hair fell across his face, partially obscuring a hell of a good set of cheekbones and a large poppy bruise flowering across the side of his face. His hands, mouth and feet were duct taped together so vigorously I wondered whether the manager was afraid of him. It must have taken a _lot _of strength to manhandle him into that cupboard.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. They were intense and dark, drilling straight into mine. I gasped, and staggered backwards, wanting to get away from his gaze. Immediately afterwards, I felt stupid.

"Penny!" I cried aloud- in shock. I realised my mistake a moment later- don't speak in front of suspicious characters! I looked across the room; my partner was leaning against the desk, looking horribly frail. Worried, I started towards him. _Are you alri-_

_Yes! Fine! What is it?_

_There's a...er. Prisoner in the cupboard._

_What?!_

_Yeah. I think he's a Savant. _I had put two and two together by this point: the guards knew about us, and they were guarding a door with this guy inside. Reason told me that I should leave him there; but my instinct- and humanity- told me that it was a really bad idea. I wasn't going to leave someone at the mercy of a group of Savant-haters! _I'm going to free him._

_Oh no. No. No. Mara-_

Penny lunged across the room, probably hoping to do something brave and heroic which would save both our skins. Too late. I knelt down and (rather hurriedly) tore the duct tape off the jeans of the stranger. Then I turned my attention to his wrists, conscious all the time of his intense eyes on me- just watching, not doing anything. "This might hurt. Er-sorry." I told him. Then, gritting my teeth against the nausea, I tore the plastic off his wrists with a _horrible _ripping sound.

To give credit where it was due, he didn't make a single sound, but his eyes went as wide as saucers. Finally, his mouth. I hesitated, but- no, it was fine. With a rip and a slight groan, he'd done it himself. I let out a deep breath and stood up, wobbling slightly on shaky legs.

_We can't do this, you idiot! _Penny's voice roared inside my skull, making me wince and cover my ears- though obviously, that didn't work a bit. _What do you think we're going to the guards? 'Hey, just taking the prisoner for a walk- to the police station! Please don't shoot!'_

_SHUT UP! _I roared back. Too late, I saw several large cracks forming on the chair I was kneeling next to. Before I could do anything, it collapsed inwards with a creak. Oops.

I turned back to the cupboard, to see the guy unfolding himself from inside its tiny space. I gulped as I watched his head go up...and up...and up. God, he was a monster- I was fairly tall, but he was easily six foot four. I had released him on a whim- I could only hope that he wouldn't decide to squish me. Or make a fuss. Or get us caught...I groaned inwardly.

"Er...hi." He just looked. "Are you...erm...ok?"

"Not really." Well, that was a turn up for the books. He was an American! What was he doing, cramped into a cupboard in the depths of London? Bit of an extreme form of tourism. Cupboard tourism...

I soldiered on. "Well, my name's er...Michelle. And right now we're in a lot of trouble...but I think you've sussed that one already. Nice to meet you. Now, er, we've gotta go. Urgently. Can you find your own way out?"

"_What?"_

"We've got to go!" Penny roared from across the room. I turned around to yell at him for being too loud, but the stranger suddenly put his hand on my wrist and spun me back around to face him. For a moment, I was breathless. Then I yanked my wrist out of his grasp and pushed him backwards- with difficulty. "Do _not _touch me!"

For a moment, he stared at me.

"_What was that for_?" He demanded.

"Don't grab me!" I hissed back. Anger was coming to my defence now- talk about arrogant! "We're probably going to get busted any second, and it's because _you were in this room_!"

His face looked thunderous. "Now listen here-"

Just as things were shaping up to look like the start of a wonderful new relationship, Penny's voice groaned _Mara..._

I turned around, furious, about to shout at him too- but stopped when I saw his face. Chalk-white, with a greenish tinge. I felt a stab of panic. He was ill, definitely ill, and there couldn't have been a worse time for it.

"Penny?" I asked uncertainly, starting to make my way across the carpet.

He attempted to scowl at me- and then his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground.

I clapped a hand to my mouth to keep me from screaming. Instead, I took a deep breath- and then another and another- to try and rein in my panic. Okay. Okay. Penny was incapacitated, possibly with the illness that had brought us here in the first place. Was it infectious? I could only hope not. One Savant down- our most valuable skill gone too. One Savant extra- unknown skill. Four guards and loads of corridors to go until we reached freedom.

I spun around to face the new guy. "Okay, chum, what's your name?"

"Will, but-"

"Will. Alright, Will, we're trapped. At some point, they're going to realise that the Manager isn't in here. I know you're a Savant. I am too. Can you do anything that could get us out faster?"

"Er...yeah. I guess. Telekinesis. I can sense threats..." His voice was reluctant on that last one- I guess he didn't want to admit his more unusual skill. Meanwhile, I didn't see how that would do us an inch of good.

"Well, the corridor's empty but there are two people coming up-" I checked my watch and groaned "-coming up around now. There are some guards and some visitors who will probably be making their way up here any time soon. Any ideas? We need to get out!"

"I could try. What's your name?"

"Does it really matter now? It's Michelle." I challenged him. He grinned, and for some reason that made me blush. "No, it's not. And it always matters, baby-doll."

"Don't _ever _call me baby doll." I scowled. "But it's Mara...Mara Cooper."

He flashed a smile at me, and before I could do anything more than kick myself mentally, he sat down heavily in the middle of the floor and closed his eyes. Trying to sense the nearest threats to us, I guess. I didn't think he was trying to trick me. We were all in the same situation.

Trying to mask my embarrassment, I ran across the room to check on Penny. He was still breathing, but I could see slivers of white showing from underneath his eyelids. He needed help, and fast.

"Will." I called softly. "You're going to have to carry Penny."

"Who calls a guy Penny?" He muttered to himself, before nodding and losing himself in his power again. Two minutes passed in agonising slowness, before he eventually nodded. "They're downstairs, but moving up fast. The Manager's coming up with the visitors on the staircase too- two mins max."

"Okay. We'll take a risk and take the longer way down. Can you...eh...carry Penny?" To my horror, I felt my cheeks flush red, and hastily tried to explain. "I mean, I would, but I can't carry him and run at the same time. You're built like a brick."

"A brick? I'm offended. I'm much better looking than a brick."

He seemed to be trying to make this as hard for me as possible! "Yes, yes. I mean, no! Just get Penny, already!"

"Not until you've said please."

We stared at each other- him calmly, me incredulously. Was this actually happening? The guy I had rescued was asking _me _to beg _him _to carry my fallen comrade? And the worst thing was, I couldn't say no, because then I'd be leaving Penny behind. I ground my teeth.

"Fine! Please!"

"Since you asked so politely, of course." He sauntered over to where Penny was lying, and picked him up without any effort at all, laying him across his shoulder in a fireman's lift.

I decided then and there that I was morbidly thankful he wasn't my soulfinder.

"Okay." He said coolly, walking over to the door and laying his hand on the doorknob. "Ready to go?"

"Yes." No point wasting words with this guy. I ran over to where the all-important papers lay on the floor and stuffed them into my coat pocket. Then I quickly gathered my hair up and looped a bobble around it. Catching him staring at me, I raised an eyebrow. "What? A girl's got to look ready for action."

"I wasn't saying anything!" He said quickly. "Right. Ready? Three, two, one, _go_!"

He turned the handle and we stepped into the hush of the corridor. The corridor was eerily deserted, the haunted-house creak of the door the only sign of life in the deathly hush, with the ominous tramp-tramp of feet on the stairs. I almost scurried back inside the manager's office again, but seeing Will stride confidently away, Penny swinging like a rag doll on his back, I gritted my teeth and followed. As we got to the end of the corridor, I glanced back- and almost cried out. Two people were marching down the corridor towards the manager's office, accompanied by Knockton himself. I stared at them, trying to take in as many details as I could before they saw me. Man: tall, grey specs, confident, bald. Woman: shorter, dumpier, neatly coiffed black hair. Both gave off an aura of distinct menace.

_Just _as they glanced my way, I leapt around the corner and started to run for the stairs. They'd find out any minute now...

We walked quickly down the next corridor, every sense on red-alert, straining to hear the slightest noise.

We managed to get onto the next floor down before things started to go wrong. I had noticed Will's face getting more and more strained as we walked, but now the colour was starting to bleach away from his cheeks. Worried that the same thing was happening as had happened to Penny, I asked him what was wrong.

"They're coming this way- they'll be here soon." He gasped. "I...can't think how to avoid them. I never got shown round here."

"Okay, okay." I told him, taking a deep breath filled with adrenaline. "We'll probably be able to run for it now."

"What? You're- crazy!"

"Ever heard of an adrenaline rush? You're a big boy. We'll be fine." I grinned to myself, imagining what Fred would have said if I'd told him that. Blow a gasket, most probably.

"_What did you call me?"_

"Let's get this party started!" I broke into a run; we wouldn't have long. Will followed, deciding to drop the matter. As we swept past another corridor- I could've sworn that the way back wasn't this long when we'd walked up- I heard the guards thunder down the stairway behind us.

As we sprinted towards the last stairwell, the siren started up. The alarm suddenly filled the air with a deafening howl of pain, and doors started opening all along the wall.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled at Will. There was just enough time to get away from the guards- nobody, not even a Savant could run through a stampeding crowd- but it wouldn't be long. We thundered towards- down- the staircase, slipping on the concrete. Breath dragged in and out of my lungs, my legs were on fire, I couldn't stop running.

The reception door came into view.

"Hey! It's that office worker! And- _hey_!"

I swore to myself. I'd forgotten that there had been four guards- we'd just ran straight past Beardy and Blue!

There was a bang behind me, and something pushed into my back, propelling me forwards, helping me burst through the door into the grey lounge. I sprinted past Miss Smith, who called out in shock, and fell through the door onto the street, finally staggering to an unsteady halt.

When I stopped, the pain hit me, a fire blossoming across my right shoulder and stealing my breath to fuel the inferno. I couldn't even cry out.

But I screamed internally- a long mental cry of agony- just as the others burst onto the street next to me. Dimly, I saw Will stagger to a stop, staring at me stupidly as I fell forwards, the hard pavement rushing up to meet me.

Then the pain overwhelmed me, and I fell into inky blackness.


	4. Waking Up

"Is...alright?"

"She'll be...Will. Just give...time to rest."

What?

Gradually, I surfaced from the non-thought of unconsciousness into a world of light and sound. Red lights flickered past my eyelids; everything was warm and fuzzy. I felt completely peaceful.

"Mara? Mara Cooper? Can you hear me?"

I felt a flicker of annoyance. Stupid person, couldn't they see that they were disrupting my sleep?

"Xav..."

"Hey, chill, Will! I did all I could. I definitely said 'Give her time!' And guess what you're not doing? Jeesh, you could make a refrigerated cucumber angry!"

"Shuddup." I mumbled, irritated.

There was a sudden silence. "Mara? Can you hear me?"

"Tommy, go away. S'bedtime."

"Has she gone..."

"No! How 'bout you talk to her?"

Silence. Ahh! Bliss. Then a very calm voice sounded next to my ear. "Mara, this is Will. You know, the one you saved from the cupboard? It'd be nice if you could wake up now."

"Yeah, yeah..." then what the voice was saying sank in. My brain kicked in, chasing away the fuzziness with panic. My eyes snapped open- only to find a pair of dark ones staring right back at me.

"Aaargh!"

I jolted up in bed- only to be hit by a wave of pain from my shoulder, groan and slump back down again. "Oww..."

"Mara, are you alright?"

Blearily, my eyes swivelled around to find the speaker. There he was- Will, straight from my nightmare. Or not...it seemed that the whole breaking-in thing was turning out to be horribly real. I managed a half-smile, before slowly taking a deep breath, and levering myself up, inch by inch.

"Do you need help with that?" He was hovering by my side! Scary. Were all guys like this? I could do it on my own.

"Er. No. It's fine. Thanks." Slowly the rest of the world came into view. Enough for me to realise that this definitely wasn't my house. More expensive, for one: a large room with a glass wall giving die-for views of good ol' London city (ha!), a double bed, several tastefully framed (but probably hideously expensive) pictures on the walls, and some random furniture.

Also, two very good-looking boys were sitting on the bed- plus Will. Where did they all keep coming from? I'd been missing out on this hunk-fest. On closer inspection, I noticed that they, with their dark hair and powerful frames, bore a strong resemblance to Cupboard Guy. They must all be family. So they must all be Savants.

Blimey, three rich, American, good-looking Savants in my room. What were the odds?

Speaking of 'my room'...

"Where am I?" I asked, and immediately cringed. My voice was cracked and dry from not speaking for- how long? How long had I been out? I felt the first signs of terror stirring in my gut, fighting against the remaining sleep-stupor.

Will leaned across the bed, obviously trying not to frighten me, and held out a glass of water. "Mara, you were shot as we left the Institute. So we- ah- took you home. Well. We've got an apartment here. Xav's a healer, he mostly fixed the damage. You should be good as new by tomorrow."

Really? I shot him a suspicious look as I grabbed the water and downed it in one. Aaah...bliss on my throat. But the healing? That was almost too good to be true. Also, how the heck had he managed to carry me all the way back from the Institute? Hesitantly, I reached up and touched my right shoulder, only to feel a thick padding of bandage there instead. Apart from the slight pressure, I felt almost nothing. Oh, that was cool. I grinned.

"And these are...your brothers?"

"Yeah. Mara, meet Xavier and Yves. Don't think you've got away lightly- there are another four brothers, mom and dad to meet as well. As well as a couple of Soulfinders."

"Oh." I managed, staring at the newly named Xavier and Yves. Yves looked rather intellectual- maybe it was the glasses- and Xav, with his shaggy hair and wide, wide eyes, rather day-dreamerish, but I could sense formidable willpower and strength behind their exteriors. I glanced at Will. Actually, now he was on his home turf, he wasn't hiding the formidable willpower and strength at all.

"Pleased to meet you." The best form of defence was always politeness, I thought. A rather worrying thought popped into my head- I didn't actually know if these guys were on the same side as me. Neither Will nor I had talked about our loyalties during our fight to survive- for all I knew, he could've been imprisoned because he was part of the criminal Savant ring. If that was true, then I was seriously screwed.

"Same." Xavier grinned; Yves offered a shy smile. Criminal or not, I decided that I liked them. Manners were hard to find these days without getting picky about whose side we were on.

Still, the sooner I got out, the better.

"Nice meeting you, and everything. Where exactly, er, am I?" I cautiously inched my legs over the side of the bed. Someone had removed my socks and shoes, making it that much harder to escape. Oh well, I thought, staring at a particularly jagged scar across my right foot, courtesy of a rusted nail I'd stood on when I was about six. My feet had definitely withstood worse than a run through London.

I braced myself, and then launched myself upwards off the bed and onto my feet. Bad move. My shoulder screamed at me, and only Will's arms around me stopped me toppling backwards onto the quilt again.

"You'd better get some food down you." He said in my ear. His mouth was so close that his breath warmed the back of my neck. I inhaled his leather-and-cologne smell, temporarily dazed- but the sight of Xavier and Yves staring at me was a wake-up call. I couldn't eat any of their _food_- what if they'd drugged it or something? I reminded myself: I couldn't trust them until I knew where their loyalties lay.

"No," I argued, pulling myself free and trying to ignore Will's hurt expression. I kept my face carefully blank, trying not to give any sign of what I was about to do. "It's very nice of you, but I'm fine."

"Mara," That was Yves' soft voice. I stared at him, surprised. "Your energy levels are so low right now that I'm surprised that you're still standing. You need to eat something."

Aaargh! Panic spread across the pit of my stomach. I stared at them for a second, and then bolted for the door, trying to ignore the pain; desperation lending me wings.

I'd caught them unawares- I could tell that much from the surprised shouts that followed me up the corridor. Thank god, the apartment seemed small- wood-floored, ultra-modern, not much furniture. All fine by me.

"MARA!" A voice thundered from behind me. Will. "STOP! PLEASE! LET ME EXPLAIN!"

No, no, no!

I rounded a corner, gasping with relief when I saw the door.

And then my heart stopped with horror when I saw Xavier step in front of it. No! My escape route! I whirled around, ready to smash something- anything- something to get me out! But the other two had cut off the route behind me.

"What do you want?" I cried, voice cracking, the strain finally getting to me. "Who are you? Why can't you let me go? I'll...I can hurt you!"

I hoped they wouldn't call my bluff on that one.

"Mara. We don't want to hurt you. We just want to find out what you know." Yves spread out his hands in a calming manner. I flinched backwards. I didn't want to injure him...

"What's all this?"

Another huge shape had stepped out of a side room- possibly the living room. As the sun fell across his broad face, my heart lifted.

"Saul!" I cried with relief.

His face changed from formidable to astonished in the space of a second. "_Mara_?"

"What?" Will's jaw dropped with a clang. "You guys know each other?"

"Well." Saul puffed out a huge sigh. "Guess everyone's got some explaining to do."

* * *

My full name is Mara Rosie Cooper. I was born in New Zealand. My mother, Eleanor Cooper, had abandoned us for her Soulfinder ten years after I'd been born, and my father, Harry, had worked for the Savant Net, and had been killed in action six months before. I had two brothers, Thomas and Fred. Before my mum had left, we'd moved to Britain; now we ran a shop outside Sevenoaks, near London. Ever since Fred had been small he'd been taken to the meetings so my dad could keep an eye on him. With both parents not around and me and Tommy still tiny, Fred had done the same for us.

It goes without saying that we all became part of the Savant Net. I had sat in meetings from the age of ten; by the time I was sixteen I was deemed old enough to actually be of some use, despite the potential hazard my power presented (turns out they were dead right about that one, anyway). Seventeen I went on my first mission. Now it was a lot further on, and I had several more under my belt- and not all of them successful, either. I had known Saul Benedict for ages- he was a fundamental part of the Net. Seeing him calmed me down immensely; it was just a surprise that I hadn't met the Benedict boys sooner.

That was the basic synopsis of what came out over a mug of tea and about ten biscuits in the Benedict kitchen with Saul, Will, Yves and Xav (yeah, weird names, huh?) hanging on to my every word. When I'd finished, Saul sat back in his chair and let out a long breath.

"Mara Cooper..." he muttered to himself. "Should'a known. The pocket hurricane. The one who destroyed the conference room that one time. You don't look much like Fred, if you don't mind me saying."

I winced, then quirked a smile. "Everybody else says that, too." In all truth, it was as though there was a divide in the family. Fred looked like my dad: deep blue eyes, sandy hair, and a lopsided smile that girls fell over themselves for. Me and Tommy, meanwhile, looked more like Mum, with our grey-blue eyes and red-brown hair. Unlike Fred, we were fairly tall and slim- even more so when compared to his broad, medium-height build. I wished I looked more like him; I loathed my mother after what she'd done to us.

"_Blew up _the conference room? Awesome! Sounds like Yves." Xavier interjected. Seeing my confused look, he hastily explained. "Yves has a fire-thing going on. Can control it. Nice for toasting marshmallows; not good if you irritate him. What can you do, then?"

I stared into the dregs of my tea mug, watching the milky brown liquid swirl as I tilted the cup. I'd been hoping that this question wouldn't come up. It tended to scare people, and then my chances of getting to know them vanished like smoke in the wind as they then started to avoid me.

"It's like...a destructive power." I said slowly, trying to phrase it as tactfully as possible. "I...can. I dunno. It's like a concentrated burst of energy. I can shatter things- only dead things, though, not living things like...you know." Dogs. Humans. Thank god.

Feeling a bit hot all of a sudden, I shrugged off my jacket. I was still wearing the familiar clothes I'd worn for my role as Michelle Inkson, and underneath was my white sleeveless blouse. I cradled my cup of tea, and prepared to start again.

"What are those?" Will's voice was sharp enough to cut diamond. I jumped and looked around for the threat before realising that he was staring at me.

"What are what?" I asked, bewildered.

"Those. Scars." He brushed a finger up my arm, and I felt goosebumps follow its path. I stared at him confusedly, before clocking the countless white marks marking my arms in a spiderweb of runes. They were so normal to me that I'd taken a while to figure out what he'd been angry about. Despite myself, I felt a warm little fire kindle in my stomach from his worried reaction.

"Oh. Well, sometimes I get a little too close to the things I smash." I said casually. My eyes fell on a flurry of white marks which adorned my shoulders- the closest ones to Will's finger. That particular set of scars extended to my back, and came from when I'd blown up the kitchen window during a (rare) argument with Tommy. I was also missing a little toe from when I'd blown up the knife rack. I wasn't any keener on hurting myself than other people, but sometimes it was, sadly, unavoidable.

"How far does it go?" Saul asked, his tone businesslike. I frowned, uncertain about how much I wanted to confide. But then again, if I couldn't talk to other members of the Savant Net, who else could I trust?

"The biggest thing I've ever smashed is a car, and that was when I was really furious. It gets worse the angrier I get- and the older I get." Aah...what a career. From cracking the bars in my cot to smashing cars. I didn't think the house counted-it had been fragile. And old. The only thing I'd done was break the supports. And I'd totally trashed the car. Fred had _not_ had an easy time claiming the insurance from that one.

Xavier whistled between his teeth.

"Can you show us?" That was Yves. I let out a long sigh- I'd kind of been expecting that one.

"It's okay-you don't have to." Will said quickly, but I stopped him.

"No, it's fine. Do you mind the loss of a mug? I'll pay you back."

Saul twinkled at me. "Go ahead. Don't bother paying- I never liked that mug."

With the eyes of four Benedicts on me, I slugged back the last of my tea and turned my attention to the empty cup. I closed my eyes, centred myself, took a deep breath. I didn't want it to explode.

I stared at the mug-it _was_ rather ugly, a Technicolor affair with polka dots exploding across the china- which started to vibrate under my gaze. Cracks snaked up the sides; the handle shot off and hit the wall with a bang. Then, with an almost defeated sigh, the rest of the china collapsed in a heap on the table.

"Wow!" Will's voice shattered my concentration like a battering ram. I gasped in shock and jerked backwards in my chair; before I could stop it, the other four mugs exploded outwards, showering us all in a lukewarm coffee rain. Their cries of admiration turned to yells of shock in the space of a heartbeat.

"Sorry!" I cried, wringing my hands as I wrestled my power back under control. "Sorry, sorry! It's hard for me to manage sometimes!"

"I'm never gonna get this out of my hair!" Will moaned. "On the other hand..." He ruffled his hair into coffee gelled spikes. "...it looks quite sexy, don't you think?"

"Definitely." Yves grinned. "Don't worry, Mara. I do it a lot myself. I burnt Phoenix's hand when I first met her." He winced to himself. "Xav helped then, as well."

"I'm indispensable." Xav grinned to himself, earning himself a lot of eye rolls.

"Phoenix?" I ventured cautiously. A female? Did everyone here have strange names?

"My soulfinder." Yves explained. A dreamy expression slid across his face. "Phoenix Benedict. We got married a couple of months ago."

"He's still living in the land of the sickeningly happy." Will informed me. "We've tried to bring him back from Cloud Nine, but nothing's worked yet."

"You make it sound like an illness." The happy husband retorted, cheeks flushing beetroot. "You'll understand someday."  
"I don't need a lesson from my little brother!" Will laughed. A milk jug upended itself over Yves' head, giving him the ultimate facemask. Yves yelled in shock, and an unfortunate nearby loaf of bread went up in flames.

"BOYS!" Saul thundered in his scariest who's-the-daddy voice. "We have visitors!"

"Another one?" I asked, after I'd stopped laughing. The wonderful family atmosphere was doing great in putting me at ease. Then it clicked- _all_ the memories of before came flooding back. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten him. "Where's Penny?"

They stopped laughing immediately and Will's face instantly became solemn. "He's in hospital, Mara. We-er- put him in Xav's care." He said, sounding almost apologetic. "But nothing he did was working. I'm sorry, Mara. I think the illness got him." His large hand closed over my much smaller one in an almost absent-minded gesture.

For a moment, I couldn't think. Penny? Ill? He'd lose his power completely. I'd never known someone who'd fallen prey to the virus- my partner's being ill brought it home with a bang. And it was an awful feeling.

I stood up slowly, feeling suddenly weary and thickheaded, as though I was wading through glue. I wanted to see Fred and Tommy. "I need to get home."

"What?" Will's face closed; disappointment etched itself across his face. "You're practically starving! You can't leave now!"

"Does Malcolm know where you are?" Malcolm, the guy who was masterminding the Savant Net's investigation into the illness.

"I'll drop him a line when I get home. There's a meeting tomorrow night anyway."

"D'you want me to walk you home? I need to tell you something..." That was Will. I bit down on my emerging blush- and smile. Aah...chivalry! He was doing a wonderful job of getting underneath my skin- he must have a talent for it. Or...

"Nah, s'alright. I live just outside Sevenoaks, it's quite far away. See you tomorrow. Thanks for healing me, Xav."

"No probs." Xav said with an easy smile.

And with that, I picked up my jacket, swung it onto my shoulder, grabbed my shoes and marched out of the front door, leaving them still sitting at the kitchen table. As soon as it closed behind me, I turned and leant my forehead against the cool wood, my brain struggling to compute with the facts.

In other words, struggling to compute Will.


	5. The Perks (Or Not)Of Owning a Restaurant

Ten minutes later, I was walking back home.

Trying to get over what had happened in the last twenty four hours- and quell my whirring brain- I'd opted for that famous munch-as-you-march food, the sandwich. I had to admit that it had gone down extremely quickly, and I felt much better for it- but, then again, that could be partly because I was on the way to seeing Fred and Tom again.

Despite the sandwich's hunger-quelling powers, though, the thoughts kept coming, spinning around my head like insistent little tornadoes. Tornadlets, in fact. Yes, Will had offered to come home with me, but I wasn't entirely sure why. Chivalry? A hidden agenda? Concern? I'd saved his life, but I wasn't sure why he still wanted anything to do with me. Had he really come out of the Institute unscathed? Why had he been there in the first place? Maybe because we were both members of the Savant Net...thinking about that, I wasn't looking forward to the debriefing with Dominic. Telling him about the monumental mess-up and Penny's illness was down to me, and it was _not_ going to be pretty.

I'd been going for a couple of miles in the crisp evening air-just swinging past a shop to buy some toasted garlic- before I noticed the Black Jeep. At first, it didn't seem that suspicious- I mean, a car, in London? Heaven forbid!- but after the next few miles of following every turn I made, I started to fret. Had I given myself away? Did they know who I was? I'd thought that Fred had disabled the cameras before we went in.

But I was not going to have them follow me home.

Quickly, I made a pass into the nearest Underground Station, ducking into the female toilets and waiting for about ten minutes, wishing I had my moped with me. When I was sure that they'd gone, I caught the bus home, thoroughly freaked out, constantly checking behind my back to see whether I could see anybody suspicious enough to be worth panicking about.

Finally, the bus stopped at my house. It wasn't very big: a small, old restaurant tucked into the edge of a wood, but it made me _feel_ happier just looking at it. It was true what they said: no place like home. I supposed we were lucky to have gotten it for so small a price; I didn't really know. Being the youngest of three, I was generally left out of money-related things. Or maybe it was a man thing. That, knowing my brothers, seemed all too likely as well.

Fishing my key from the bottom of the dangling flower basket, I let myself in through the side door- almost tripping over the dish of cat food helpfully left outside- and entering into the gloriously warm house.

The first thing that hit me was the smell; a heavenly cross between spaghetti and sage which invaded my stomach via my nostrils and made it growl hungrily. One of the perks of having a brother who's nutty about cooking is that when he's not whipping up food for your customers, he's trying out new things on his family.

"Tommy!" I called lightly, walking down the hall and into the kitchen and swinging the garlic-string from one finger. "Guess what I got you!"

"It had better be food-related or I won't talk to you." That was my brother for you: charming at all hours of the day. I passed through the archway into the kitchen and saw him: auburn hair sticking up crazily in the tiny, light-filled kitchen, in the middle of a bombsite of pots and pans. As I watched, he held out a coconut to me. "Crack that, would you?"

I glanced at the nut. Cracks snaked up its sides and it wobbled dangerously, before Tommy retracted it again. I waited, tossing the garlic onto the counter- it was generally better not to disturb him when he was cooking, or he'd start swearing.

Finally, he set the spag bol onto simmer, turned around and swept me into a bone-crushing hug, before planting a wet kiss on the top of my head. "Cheers for the garlic. There you go, Hu."

Old family nickname.

I waited until my breath came back, then ruffled his hair. "Any time, Tru."

"So, how did it go?" He asked, as the cutlery marched past him and onto the table, ready for dinner. "Get what we need?"

"Er, yes and no." I checked that the stack of papers I'd taken from the manager's office was there-it was, thank god- and then told Tommy about finding Will Benedict in a cupboard. I decided to leave out the bit about getting shot- I didn't really want to worry him any more than I absolutely had to. When I'd finished, my brother let out a long, low whistle.

"Jeez. Why was he in there? Was he alright?"

"How should I know?" I retorted. "Is Fred coming over for dinner?" Fred, the need-alone-time scientist, lived in a flat a little way away from us. I guessed it was an independence thing- or else he'd moved in with someone who he didn't want to talk about. At all.

"Yup. Nothing's too much for Mara. I even put _more_ food out for Pawla." I elbowed him, a little in response to the jibe about my (fat) cat, but mostly to mask my surprise about Fred. Since moving away, Tommy and I hadn't exactly been what you'd call close to him. He'd detached himself, grown distant from us. I had no idea why, but it _did_ hurt.

I headed off to the living room, but as I went, Tommy grabbed my arm and spun me around. His eyes studied me intently. "Mara. Something's happened to you, hasn't it? How was the mission?"  
"No- no. It was fine." I said, unsure what exactly he meant. The shooting, meeting the Benedicts? The unsettling feeling I had whenever I was around Will? My shoulder throbbed, once, as though it wanted to make me confess. He knew I was lying, though; that was his gift. Tom was an expert judge of character.

Not wanting to let him guess any more about my day, I tore my arm free and flopped in front of the television, but as soon as my bum touched the sofa I heard the door open again, followed by Fred's yell.

"THOMAS, YOU USED THE SAGE!"

"SORRY!" Tommy bellowed from the kitchen. "MAKING SPAG BOL!"

"WELL, THERE'S HALF A JAR OF HERBS IN THE CUPBOARD!"

"SHUT UP! TELLY'S ON!" I shouted. That was Cooper family life for you: we communicated mainly through yells- especially in the café, when things got much too stressful than was healthy for my power.

"MARA? IS THAT YOU?" Sadly, Fred was right behind me at the time, and I got the full force of his yell in my ear. I screamed, and Tom roared in pain next door as something smashed. Oops.

"You idiot!"

"Why are you here?" He asked me-normal voice levels now- looking, for some reason, surprised. Confused, I squinted up at him, clutching my ringing head. "Shouldn't I be?"

He grinned- a fake grin that was flatter than a punctured tyre. I tried to keep my mood from plummeting downhill at his indifferent tone, and failed miserably. Thanks for ruining my evening, Fred. "No, no, just thought you'd be out. So, what happened today?"

Why did he care? Fred always pretended that these missions never happened. I humoured him, though- he was my brother, after all. "Nothing too drastic. I got in; got out- found some papers- found a guy in the cupboard and brought him with me."

"You did _what_? Where are the papers?"

"Hey, relax. The papers are in my coat pocket. It was Will Benedict- you know, Saul's son? He's not my soulfinder, so stop looking like you're going to go and beat him up."

"I do not!"

"You do!"

"I do not!"

"You do, you 'nana!" I reached up to ruffle his hair, but he moved subtly out of the way, leaving me stupidly reaching in mid air. Not letting him see how much that stung, I pulled my hand back sharpish, and then jumped up in my seat, stalking upstairs to my room. He was an idiot anyway, I thought as I slammed the door shut. The tiny house shook to its foundations- even without my power, I could cause a bang.

"MARA! DINNER IN TEN!"

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered, tossing my coat onto the bed and sinking down on top of it. A lone paper fluttered down to the floor like a dying bird, crunching as I lay back on the pillows, thoughts spinning round and round my head in aimless circles. A traitor tear slunk slowly down my cheek, making a break for freedom which was foiled when I reached up and wiped it angrily away. I stared aimlessly at the ceiling- painted a deep, fresh blue in a fruitless attempt to cool my sometimes gunpowder temper before it started breaking things- and then at the framed picture on my bedside table. It was a picture of all of us- Fred, Tommy and me, and tucked into the corner, another of my mum and dad with their heads close together- auburn and sandy brown. Looking at all of the happy, smiling faces helped me to calm down like nothing else would.

What the hell was wrong with my brother? Recently, he'd been- I don't know- not exactly horrible, but distant. Not just from me, but from Tommy, too. The worst thing was that I couldn't think why- Fred had always been there to look out for us, care for us when we were little- he was a good eight years older than me, and six older than my brother. That was quite a gap, but it didn't mean that he didn't love us- I mean, each other was practically all we had. He was the only one of us who'd gone to uni- Tommy didn't want to (he enjoyed cooking too much), and I was on one of those universities where you studied from home. I was doing French- I loved foreign languages, especially the language of garlic (what else) and romance. I'd never admit it to Tom or Fred, but someday, I wanted to live in Provence, in New Zealand, anywhere, just not in dingy old London. Maybe he'd gotten tired of Savant powers and wanted a normal life.

I thought of Tommy, our magic fights, missions, excitement...and now Will.

I didn't want a normal life.

* * *

Dinner was a quiet affair, despite the chaos that had gone into creating it. The spaghetti was perfect (_quelle surprise, _if you want it in French) but I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually did. Although I was starving, Fred's behaviour had left an ashy taste in my mouth that I couldn't seem to get rid of. Cue a quick card game (which Tommy won, due to his extra-handy knack as a lie-detector) and then Fred left, shutting the door behind him and leaving almost no trace of his having been there. Maybe he hadn't- Fred was blessed with the power to divert attention from himself, rendering him almost invisible. Useful for behaving like a coward.

That night I went to bed early. Flipping off the light switch, I passed the window on the way to bed- and froze. Waiting outside was a shiny black Jeep. The windows were blacked out, but if gave off an aura of distinct menace.

_It couldn't be the same one._ I told myself repeatedly. _You shook them off in the Tube, remember? _

Still. That sent shivers up my spine, and I checked all of the locks downstairs twice before going back to bed. I guessed we'd find out who they were tomorrow.

* * *

The next day found me serving in our café¸ imaginatively named 'The Three Sorcerers'. We had Tom's mischievous sense of humour to thank for that plain-as-day hint to everyone in the vicinity. I liked working there, though- the customers (generally tourists) were friendly and tipped well, especially when they saw my cat, which was more than I could say for some local people. An incredibly grumpy lot they were, most of the time.

By mid-morning the café had just about filled up with people, and I was multitasking to the nth degree by simultaneously keeping the till ringing and the customers coming for their orders. We had considered hiring extra help, but had decided that it was too much of a risk- mainly because of me. And right now I was wishing we hadn't decided to be that sensible.

"TABLE EIGHTEEN!" I bellowed from my spot behind the till.

_Thomas Cooper, where are those SODDING tomato soups? _

_Coming, coming!_

I sprinted out to deliver some hastily-made sandwiches to table eighteen, then, seeing another customer sauntering up to the bar, cursed and practically ran up to the till. I straightened my apron and tried to look professional, fixing on a pleased-to-serve smile.

"Yes. Can I help you?"

"I'll say. Hello, Mara Cooper." My heart stopped dead at that tone of voice. Almost afraid to look, I raised my head and looked straight into Will Benedict's eyes. Frustratingly, my cheeks flamed a deep scarlet, making my feelings about him perfectly clear to everyone else, even if they weren't to me. In other words, 'well hello, hunky'.

"What-why-ahem." I tried again- tried not to sound like a complete moron. With difficulty. "Why are you here, Will?"

"You know, you look even prettier when you're flustered."

"Nice chat up line." I said wryly, trying to ignore my heart's thundering rhythm, which was now kicking into overdrive. "Does it usually work on girls?"

"Mostly, yeah." He admitted with a rueful smile. _Mostly!? _How many girls had he tried that out on? Was he a womanizer?

I decided to cut to the chase. Mostly because Tommy had stuck his head out of the kitchen door and was staring at me, blue-grey eyes wide with interest. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I needed to tell you something really important-"

But just then the door to the café opened and a man and a woman walked in. The man was tall and well built, the woman plump. They looked completely normal, touristy kind of folk, but Will stiffened as though I'd just slapped his grandmother. As they walked up to the till, I could see the tension in his body ratcheting up to breaking point, like a drawn bowstring.

This couldn't be good. I stared at them more closely, and something clicked in my brain.

Oh my god. Were they...

"Mara." His low voice distracted me instantly. "Listen to me. Those people mean threat like nothing I've ever sensed before. They were in the Institute..." A shadow passed over his face, and I received the first hint that he hadn't escaped from that place unscathed.

Being me, though, I didn't notice it.

"Well, what d'you want me to do about it?" I hissed back. "Blow the cafe up? Yes, let's destroy our livelihood."

I think that the couple must have heard me, because they started moving more quickly towards us, pushing through the crowd as they did so. Oh god... they were. They were! The people I'd seen in the Institute...the man and woman. What the _hell _were they doing here? I didn't think they'd seen me...Will's eyes widened as they pushed past him to the front of the queue, and I was left alone to face them.

I'd just have to wing it.

"Hello, can I help you?"

The man moved forwards, hiding the woman's face from view. Just as I remembered, he was short and wide, with a powerful-looking torso. Gun-metal grey eyes completed the look. The look, by the way, was intimidating.

"Let's drop the pretence, Mara Cooper."

Oh, he'd decided to cut to the chase. Will stepped forwards aggressively, but was pushed aside by the woman's hand.

I, on the other hand, thought that pretence was a good thing. "I'm sorry, but can I ask you to leave? You're disturbing the customers."

As an answer, he turned to face the crowd, who turned to look at him.

"_Get out of the café. Find another place to eat. You will forget this encounter ever took place as soon as you leave this building. You will think that the shop is closed."_

And just like that, all of our customers stood up, blank faced, and walked out of the room, trailing their rucksacks and coats behind them. Some even had half eaten food dangling from their mouths. I watched, horrified, as they seemed to re-animate as soon as they passed through the door, going from zombie to laughing and chatting in the space of a second.

There went all of our tips.


	6. An Attack and A Meeting

Truly frightened now, but unwilling to give an inch, I spread my hands on the counter to steady myself. Will quietly moved to stand next to me, and even though I couldn't have chosen a worse time for him to be there, I was grateful for his steadying presence beside me. Tom poked his head out of the kitchen door again on hearing the chatter vanish so suddenly, and goggled at the two strangers.

"Mara. Who's-"

"_Come here, Thomas Cooper. Do not attack me." _And I found myself watching in horror as Tommy was forced to walk straight up to the short man, fists clenched and arms swinging stiffly as a puppet. I took deep breaths as the man examined him all over, as detached as though he were inspecting a cow for market. In that instant, I hated his guts. Crockery began to shift on nearby tables as though in a light breeze, and the cups on the counter trembled violently. In the mirror on the wall, I could see my reflection- dark red hair stark against my white face. My eyes were huge and scared, like those of prey. I was helpless, and they knew it.

"_Do not move whilst I'm in the building. Do not attack us." _He instructed us- so friendly, as though he weren't sapping away our willpower as he spoke!-before turning around and facing me and Will. I tried to move my leg. Couldn't.

"Now. Down to business. You will be wondering why we are here. Well, recently, two people broke into our base at the Institute and stole some rather valuable papers."  
"Oh, really?" I asked innocently, willing myself not to flush guiltily. "What a shame."

"Yes." Agreed the man, just as friendly as me. "Now, fortunately we managed to get the pictures of those two on CCTV. As luck would have it. And we happen to know that a certain Percy McGregor is in Hope Hospital as we speak."

I stared at him, feeling fear grip my limbs icily and leave me paralysed. A frost worked its my veins as I watched him withdraw a picture from his jacket pocket. On it was a blurry, black and white but nevertheless recognisable shot of Will sprinting down the corridor, and me running after him, face undeniably flushed with adrenaline and a kind of wild, savage joy. It didn't look much like ordinary, waitress Mara Cooper at all- but I still looked like me. I snuck a glance at my two companions- Tommy looked stricken; Will furious.

"What do you want?" He snarled. A vein pulsed in his temple- I guessed that he was trying to fight Grey-Eye's power- but to no avail. He was stuck, just like the rest of us: cemented in place.

"Ah. William Benedict, is it not? We had the pleasure of...making your acquaintance earlier."

"Go to hell!"

"_Do not speak."_

Our opponent's eyes changed; became businesslike as he eliminated Will's voice. He was moving in for the kill. The woman next to him moved swiftly to the door, checking for people. One hand rested on her hip; I guessed there was a gun there. I bit my lip-hard- to stop it from trembling, and clenched my hands on the worksurface.

"Your papers. You took some rather valuable information from that office. We want them - and be assured that we know exactly which documents you took."

"How thoughtful." Tommy ground out.

"It's too late." I bluffed desperately. "I gave them on to my contact- they're no longer here."

"Oh, really?" The woman moved forwards purposefully for the first time. Her icy blue eyes chilled me to the core, and I tried to look away, but they stopped and held me there. With a sense of horror, I felt her presence _in my head. _My memories flickered past my eyes with lightning speed, blurring like the pages of a book. It was the worst, most invasive thing I'd ever felt- a rusty nail was digging by inches into my thoughts like a mole, mining everything that would possibly be useful.

Finally, she pulled away. I sagged against the counter, breathing deeply- sucking in air in great gulps.

"_What did you do to her?" _Tom and Will snarled at almost exactly the same time.

_Mara, are you okay? _ Tom's voice clamoured in my head for attention. Not daring to say anything else, I nodded.

The woman, meanwhile, was unaffected. Turning to Grey Eyes, she said "She's lying."

"_Get the papers." _He snarled at me. "_All of them. Give them to me! Now! And don't stop for anything else!"_

Suddenly, I was free. Kind of. Actually, no I wasn't. I was moving, but against my will, heading for the door, my whole mind –body- fixated on getting those papers. I gasped with anger, and the counter rattled, against my control.

That gave me an idea. Dangerous; risky; but what other choice did I have? I turned to the door, and his power forced my feet up the stairs, and into my room. I reached inside my jacket pocket- and froze in panic.

They weren't there. I scrabbled madly around the fabric, hoping, praying that it was there, but it remained horrifyingly, shockingly empty.

I let out a deep groan of despair, and sank to the floor. What was I going to do now?

I must have sat there for about thirty seconds before I felt the compulsion gnaw at my stomach, urging me to _get the papers. _Panicking, I grabbed a random stack of revision notes off my desk- they counted as papers, didn't they?- and sprinted downstairs.

They were waiting for me downstairs. The man turned his head upwards to look at me; the woman was facing the opposite direction. Talk about creepy. I gave both Will and Tom an encouraging smile as I strode down the stairs and plonked the sheaf in the man's hands. Well, I'd given him the papers.

"You've got your papers." I said firmly. "Now, get out."

That distracted him. He looked up, gun-metal eyes boring into mine. "What? You're strong enough to get me out of this room?"

"Oh, I think so." I told him, trying to stop my voice from wavering in fear. "Want to see me try?"

"I do, yes."

Was he testing me?

_Mara..._

_Shut up, Thomas. I'm not going to destroy the café, if that's what you're worrying about._

_I'm more worried about you, actually._

Will hadn't said anything yet, but I felt his eyes boring into the back of my head like lasers.

Well, I had to get rid of them somehow. Planting my hands squarely on the table, I took a deep breath, and centred myself. I couldn't really aim for calm in this situation, so I'd just have to try and be really, really careful not to hurt either Tom or Will- or destroy our shop. I bit my lip, concentrating, and let the tiniest crack snake up the wall of my self-control.

The cups and saucers started to wobble, rattling gently in their saucers. The knives and forks jiggled gently up and down in their holders.

Deep breath, in, out. In, out. In...

Lights started wobbling, cracks snaked up the display case.

In, out, in...ow, my head!

The man looked at me, and raised his eyebrows. Anger boiled in me like lava.

I couldn't keep a lid on it any longer. It was like trying to build a dam over Niagara Falls with two bricks- impossible.

My fragile self restraint cracked, splintered, was washed away.

A tidal wave of pure energy slammed through the restaurant, decimating tables, chairs, the mirror, everything. The lightbulbs splintered, raining glass down on the heads of the two, followed by chunks of plaster as the ceiling cracked. The display cabinet shattered completely.

"_GET OUT_!" I yelled at them. I felt a hundred feet tall, powerful, dangerous. It was exhilarating. My power lit up every fingertip with the potential to destroy. The man and his companion took one look at each other and sprinted for the door, papers flying everywhere in a blizzard of white, just as cracks started to snake up its surface.

_We'll be seeing you again, Mara Cooper._

I ignored him, laughed, exhilarated, reaching out one hand as they left, but-

_Wham! _Something hard smacked across my face like a whip, cracking my head to one side and throwing me backwards onto the floor, onto a pile of broken crockery. I gasped- and the barrier between me and my power snapped back into place. All sense of supremacy vanished; all that was left was a ringing head.

I gasped, struggling, on the ground, trying to regain my senses. When my vision cleared, I made out Will, standing above me, one arm fisted like a boxer. Disbelievingly, I raised one hand gingerly to my smarting cheek. Ow! Had he...had he _hit me?_

"Get a grip!" He snarled at me over the thundering of blood in my head. "You could have killed us!"

I took a deep, shuddering breath, the reality of his words vibrating through me. I didn't need Tommy to know that he was talking the truth- I was dangerous; I should have known better.

"S...sorry." I wheezed, struggling for air. "But...it was the...only way to get rid of them."

"There were _plenty _of other ways, Mara! And, whoever you are, _do not hit my sister." _Tom kneeled down next to me and touched my cheek gently.

"Will, this is Tom, my brother. Tom, this is Will, Saul Benedict's son. Can I have some of the tomato soup?" I interrupted. Hunger was making its appearance now- that was the price I paid for loss of control. I'd actually fainted once after exploding Fred's car- overreached myself. Though that had probably been a good thing.

"Oh. Uh- _Saul Benedict? Really?- _okay, soup!" Tom hesitated, torn between interest and brotherly concern. Fortunately for me, brotherly concern won out, and he headed into the kitchen. I heard him swear as he took in the devastation, and hoped that there was still an intact bowl.

I took advantage of the distraction to lever myself upwards, with the help of the counter. My legs had morphed into strawberry jelly and my hands were trembling like I was quitting smoking after a fifty-year stint on the cigarettes. Crikey. I wasn't usually as drained as this after a power surge.

"Soup, Mara?" A bowl of red soup appeared in front of me, accompanied with a helpful chunk of bread. Ignoring all sense of manners, I started wolfing it down, relishing the steaming liquid's taste as it slid down my throat.

Whilst I ate, Will became all business. "Right. Tom, is it? What was that man talking about? What papers? I gather that you're both part of the Savant Net."

"Are you?"

"Yeah, I am."

Tom scratched his head. "I don't really know. The papers- gone missing, have they, Mara?"

"Yeah." I closed my eyes, furious with myself. "They must have sneaked in whilst distracting us. Bugger."

There was another thought niggling in my mind as I spoke. Namely- why had the man let me lose control like that? I was pretty certain that he could've stopped my power in its tracks if he'd wanted to. Why...why did I have the feeling that he'd been testing me? Had I failed? Or worse...had I succeeded? And Will...they could've recaptured him at any point and we would have been defenceless. Dammit! My head was starting to hurt.

"'Bugger' is one word for it." Tommy said cheerfully. "And that's something else you're going to have to tell Dominic this afternoon."  
Oh, good.

* * *

The Savant Net normally held their meetings in Dominic's house- that's to say, a mansion which was plonked slap-bang in the middle of the countryside, next to the seaside. Dominic's money-saving ways, lack of children and knack for making businessmen fall over themselves in order to make a deal with him meant that we were guaranteed a safe base for operations, in a relatively remote spot.

"Good luck, Hu." Tom told me from the front seat of the car. He wasn't going to this meeting; the investigation had nothing to do with him.

"Cheers, Tru." I pecked him on the cheek- he immediately, typically, wiped it afterwards- and made my way up to the gates in the grey light. Despite a passcode and CCTV, there wasn't much in the way of security- multiple Savants with various sneak-detecting abilities tend to put a stop to thieves pretty quickly, in my opinion- and I got through into the house pretty quickly. Like all the times I had been there, it was open, tastefully decorated and spotless. The meeting room was in an upstairs office with blinds over all the windows, and as I opened the door, the group of people inside temporarily went quiet.

"Mara!" A large, broad-shouldered black man waved a cheerful hand at me. "How's the business going?"  
"Good, thanks, Hal." I grinned back; he'd been the one who'd looked after me most as a child in the meetings, mostly due to his mood-reading skills. "How are the kids?"

"Annoying as ever." He winked at me. "They may actually be moving out soon!"

I snorted- his children, who I knew well, were aged thirteen and ten- and walked around to find a free spot on the long table. As I went around, one man curled his lip and moved purposefully out of my way. Disgust radiated almost palpably from his expensively-dressed body all the way to the top of his artfully styled hair. Inwardly, I sighed, and shouldered past him. Sneering at me was the reason that I loathed my infamous power. For every person who I'd grown up with, who understood me, was another who feared me, mistrusted me, and was repelled by me. People tend to avoid those who can cause bodily harm to themselves. I understood that. Understood why people called Dominic a fool for letting me go on missions.

But it still hurt. If I wasn't good at this, what could I do?

"Mara! Now we can start." Dom grinned at me from his spot at the head of the table, and cleared his throat slightly. Immediately, there was silence, and I was left to blushingly find a free seat between Sally and Yolande, two investigators, which was a few people down from Glaring Dude.

"So." With that word, the meeting was opened. This wasn't a get-together anymore; it was now business. "Recently after several weeks of investigations, Mara Cooper and Percy McGregor entered the Institute in order to find papers confirming our suspicions about the Institute's link to the criminal Savant ring operating throughout the world. For those who have only just come-" he nodded towards someone sitting further down the table. I looked- and felt my stomach lurch. Will, Saul and Unknown Benedict Guy were sitting there! Oh, good- "-this ring has been linked to criminal activities operating in London and in Los Angeles, which is why we have invited Saul, Zed and Will Benedict here tonight."

I gazed down at the grainy surface, trying to find a pattern in the wood as Dom filled everyone in on the matters in London and Los Angeles, and the fact that I'd rescued Will from a cupboard yesterday (there were several cries of outrage at that one, both at my stupidity and the fact that he was in the cupboard in the first place).

"Do you know who was chasing you before you were captured?" Hal asked him intently. I had an excuse to look properly at Will now, along with everyone else, a chance to take in his fading bruise, scruffy hair and t-shirt (which read 'Get Off My Planet'). He looked, frankly, like a typical hooligan.

But, hey. I thought hooliganism had its appealing side.

"Not really. There were two men, but they didn't leave any clues other than the fact that they didn't like the Institute, and they knew what Savants were."

While they discussed the potential implications of this, I stared at Will, taking in his general everythingness, until a gentle call nudged me back to attention.

"Mara? The papers?"

Ah. I swallowed, trying to screw up my courage. "Papers. Yeah. About that..."

Briefly, my eyes not meeting Dominic's, I outlined the attack of the man and woman and the subsequent disappearance of the papers, skimming over the bit about me chasing them out. The only thing we'd found after they'd left- when we were cleaning up the shattered restaurant- was a business card with the name 'Red Malcolm, Private Investigator' on it. The last bit- a pack of lies. The name; perhaps not.

There was a deathly silence when I'd finished. When I chanced a look up at Dominic's face, his eyes were grave and serious. But not accusatory.

"Well, this complicates things a bit." He said gravely. "We have some people on our tail. This isn't good, guys: we need to bust this thing wide open before the virus spreads any further. We're just lucky that Percy didn't give it to Mara. I'm sure there's a connection, we just have to find it. So...Mara, you know most about these people. Are you still willing to carry on?"

Disbelievingly, I looked up into his face. Minutely, his mouth quirked up in a wry grin. A couple of seats down, Glaring Dude gasped in anger.

"Yes, I am." I smiled hesitantly. I'd have to go and visit Penny later.

"I'm sorry, but this is a complete outrage." Oh, he'd decided to make a move, had he? "She's messed up more than once- more than twice! How can we let this- this _timebomb _endanger the mission this way? She's a walking liability!"

I opened my mouth in outrage- the table began to judder ever so slightly- and everyone's expressions suddenly became very nervous. Like me, they were waiting for the explosion.

"He's wrong."

The entire company swivelled around and goggled, as one, at Will Benedict, who had suddenly stood up from the table and was glaring at the Glaring Dude himself, who looked more than a little taken aback. A warm glow kindled in the pit of my stomach, and a smile spread, along with a flaming blush, straight across my face.

Back straight, eyes flashing, Will addressed the crowd. "Mara's more than capable of fulfilling the mission. When we were in the Institute, Penny- Percy McGregor collapsed. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Mara took control of the entire situation, she got us out safely, she managed to keep the papers. I thought the CCTV was supposed to be wiped- if there's been a problem, it's not with her."

Dominic opened his mouth, but Will cut straight across him. "But, if there _is _a problem, I'm more than happy to volunteer myself and work _with _her to make sure that no glitches happen. I've seen those two people as well; I know what they look like."

Now my mouth was open in outrage. Acceleration from flattered to furious in two-point-five seconds, record speed for the Mara-mobile. What?! He was setting himself up as a bloody _nanny!_ Surely Dom would say something...

"Great idea. Well, you two, you know what to do. Get to it! Remember, we're depending on you."

Damn.


	7. A Bad Start

I stormed out of the meeting as soon as it finished, knocking aside several Savants and leaving the rest of skitter out of the way, eyes carefully not meeting mine. For once, I didn't care. All I wanted- all I _needed _– was to get outside before my temper exploded and caused some serious damage. I needed to be out, free, not confined by _stupid _businessmen and their _stupid _rules!

The sky was swollen with water as I stormed out underneath it, breaking out into a run as soon as the droplets started to splash onto my head like fat little water bombs. The gates opened automatically and I sprinted through them, leaves swirling at my feet and leaving a trail behind me, clear as day.

"Mara! Wait!"

No.

I kicked my running up a gear, trainers dancing out a double-time rhythm on the tarmac as I legged it down the road. Faster, faster...

A branch behind me hit the ground with a thud.

"Mara!"  
No! Beside me, several twigs snapped off nearby trees with gunshot-cracks. I barely flinched; kept going. Turned right down a twisted, beaten path that cut straight through the forest. There was nothing but my breath rasping in my lungs and my feet on the ground- _one _two _one _two _one _two...

The trees opened up before me, as I knew they would, giving me a panoramic shot of the turbulent sea, flanked by a grey sand beach as well as the full might of the rain on my head.

I reached down and kicked my trainers off, massaging my toes into the wet, grainy sand, relishing the contact after god knows how long trapped in that stuffy board room. My eyes instinctively glanced towards my mutilated right foot- the one without a toe- before I wrenched my gaze away. The wind tugged my hair out of its loose ponytail with gentle fingers, letting it fall around my shoulders in a thick, heavy curtain. Next to the sea, I felt almost instantly better. Here was one of the few places that I couldn't really do harm. I breathed in the cool sea air- nope, wasn't working fast enough. I was still simmering inside.

Sand squishing underneath my toes, I raced down the gentle slope of the beach and into the sea itself. The ferocious November cold made me gasp in shock- and then grit my teeth. The waves weighing down the thick weave of my jeans, I waded further in- further, further, watching the swell lap against my ankles, knees, thighs...the numbness spreading up my legs.

The footsteps crashing through the undergrowth behind me alerted me to Will's presence. I knew it was him, knew it instinctively. I stopped moving, up to my waist in freezing ocean, raindrops attacking my head and shoulders, looking out across the endless horizon. I was strongly tempted to dunk my head under the water, to pretend I hadn't seen or heard him.

"Mara!" He called out again, alarm invading his voice. "Hey- what are you doing?"

That put the match to my temper; the seawater hadn't dampened it at all. Ignoring everything else, I went straight for the jugular. "Why did you volunteer to help me?"

A pause. "Because I wanted to."

"No! I don't need a nanny, Will Benedict. I don't. I'm not some helpless female! I don't need that!"

"Hey, hey!" There were two soft thumps- I guessed they were his trainers- and then several small splashes. Seconds later, his warm hand closed around mine. I turned to face him- rainwater painted his cheeks, spiking his eyelashes...wretchedly good-looking.

"Why do you keep following me? Everything's gone wrong since I got you out of that cupboard!" I cried. "Why do you have to be so...so..._nice_?! I don't know you. You don't know me. You shouldn't _care_! Why?"

"Why does that bother you?" He demanded, drawing his eyebrows together.

"Because nobody _likes _me, Will. I'm dangerous. I hurt people! I hurt them and then they hate me." My voice cracked slightly with the information I hadn't meant to say, and my eyes swam with something I didn't think were raindrops. Angrily, I dashed them away. The ocean started swelling around my waist, little waves being churned up by the force of my emotions. "Go away!"  
"No. Listen-"

"But-"

"Listen to-"

"No-"

_You're my Soulfinder!_

As he spoke, every nerve in my body seemed to tingle in response to his words, blazing a trail of gold through me. It was as though I was a firework, and I'd only come alive in those last two seconds. My eyes widened; everything jumped into a new perspective. Colour burst through every inch of me, setting me alight. I didn't need the sunlight; I was the source of all the energy in the world.

Oh my god.

"No." Instantly, I denied it, terror leaping into life, a snake in my belly.

"You're my Soulfinder, Mara." He repeated it more softly, as though stunned with himself. His hand reached up to cup my cheek gently; his thumb brushed away a stray tear. Too stunned to move, I stared at him, agog. "I'm yours. You're mine."

"No..." I stuttered to a halt, shocked, unable to process what was happening. "_What?"_

"Er- actually, when you were shot." He smiled ruefully. "You screamed- in my head. It bowled me over so much that I didn't actually realise what it meant until this morning. So...I went to see you."

Suddenly, the ocean wasn't cold at all- tingles burnt through my body, shaking away the numbness in favour of glorious feeling, heat, emotion. Disbelief.

"You can't be." I ran shaking fingers through my hair.

"Why not? Why else would we meet in a cupboard in the middle of London? Come on!" He was so sure, so assertive, so confident that nothing would stand in our way.

I knew better.

"This is a really, really bad idea." I made a physical effort and told him, pushing back the (large) part of me that didn't want to. "I'm not joking. I can really hurt you. I've done it before."

"Mara, hey, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter."

"It _does." _ And it was much, much better that I do this before he got hurt. I took a half-hearted step backwards, but he refused to let go of my hand. I huffed, tugging against his intractable grip, and stared up at his face.

"Let me go."

"Why?" He demanded, eyebrows meeting in a thundering frown. "Go on, tell me."

"I'm not...good for you." Boy, was he not good for me. Not good for me and my messed-up family.

"Is that the best you can come up with? Mara- what you're throwing away...you haven't even given it a try yet!"

"That's why it's better we stop now!" I glared at him. Why couldn't he _see _that? Soulfinders caused nothing but trouble; our family had proved that time and again. We were like a walking, talking evidence against the wonderful possibilities of happy endings.

"Not true."

"Give me one reason it isn't!"

"Fine. You're an arrogant arse!"

He goggled at me. I fought back a hysterical giggle- it didn't look like he'd ever been insulted by a girl before. "_I'm _arrogant? What about you, Miss I-Can-Do-Everything?"

I couldn't stay any longer. Pressure was building behind my eyes and I had a horrible suspicion that more tears were on the way. I spun on my heel and started to slog out of the water. Rain pounded on my head, but I felt as though I'd been plugged into the mains. I was surprised that the water wasn't sizzling off my skin.

I reached the rocky beach and trudged up the rough, pebbly shore, furious and devastated.

Half turning around to look at him as I left saw him still up to his waist in the sea.

"I didn't ask for you, you know!" He yelled at me. "You're not mail-order! I didn't choose you!"  
"Good!" I roared back. "Because I didn't choose _you_!"

I marched through the forest, hardly noticing where I was going, before blindly climbing into Tom's waiting car.

As far as revelations go, it hadn't been the best one. And it hadn't gone in the typical hearts-and-flowers way.

"Wow, you're wet." He told me, surprised. "What happened? Temper tantrum?"

"He's the most annoying, arrogant, pig-headed, horrible people ever to be born! He's arrogant! Interfering!" I swiped away some runaway tears and hoped Tom wouldn't notice them.

"You really like him, don't you?"

"He's my _Soulfinder, _Tommy!"

"What!?"

"You heard me."

"Bugger." He said, after a long pause. He knew it wasn't a lie. As I watched, steam from my wet clothes fogging up the car, he savagely yanked on the key, starting the engine, and threw the car into reverse. "Well..."

"Don't tell Fred?"

"Yeah. _Don't _tell Fred. Three words: World. War. Three."

"Or 'Killed By Brother.'"

"Or that." Tom said, pulling onto the main road. "Poor Helene."

* * *

I threw myself into a frenzy of French work when I got back from the beach, hoping that the endless cycles of verbs would help to dull the constant replays I was subjecting my head to. It wasn't working- if anything, it was winding my stress up to an even greater point. I was still reeling with shock from Will's revelation on the beach- I didn't really know how to cope with it. For possibly the first time in my life, I was totally, horribly clueless, and I hated it. Hated that we were such a family of wierdos, and that all the Soulfinders that I'd ever known had caused pain to our family. And now it was my turn to do the same. Well, not if I could help it. I wouldn't hurt Tom- or Fred. Not for anything.

"Hu?" Tom tentatively knocked on my door at a quarter past five. "Peace offering?"

I looked around and saw that he was carrying an industrial size mug of tea. Ah! Caffeine break.

"You're a star." I told him, planting a kiss on his cheek and taking a swig. "I really, really needed that."

"There's something else..." He said shiftily. I looked up from the report on transport in Paris, immediately suspicious at his tone of voice. I should've known that there'd be a favour coming with the tea offering.

"What?"  
"Maaaaara...could you come with me to go and see Penny?"

I looked up in surprise, feeling a pang of guilt hit my gut. "_You _go see Penny? What? Why?"

Tom raised both eyebrows. "He's my friend."

I snorted. "Penny doesn't have friends. He's like the Lone Ranger." But seeing his face, I relented. "Yeah, fine. I was going to go anyway."

"That's a lie. But cool beans." He ruffled my hair. "Be quick with your hair and girl stuff- I'm going in five."

Brothers. Were they all like this?

* * *

Penny looked awful in hospital.

As we entered, another guy pushed out of the room, hat pulled down low over his face and handkerchief over his nose and mouth. Blimey- must be his dad or somebody like that. I didn't really take him in, though; Penny still body drew the eyes like a magnet. He lay, pale as a sheet, in the hospital bed, tubes linking up and running in and out of him in a jumble of spaghetti-wires. An IV drip, heart monitor and blood pressure machine were his new best friends, and they didn't look like they were getting on, either.

My heart wrenched for him, quietly lying there. He looked so young; helpless. It had only been 24 hours since he collapsed- was all his power gone now? I suppressed a shiver. It could just as easily be me lying there, and that in itself was a sobering thought.

Tom quietly dropped the bunch of flowers that we'd stopped to buy next to his bedside next to the other three or so bunches. They all seemed so helplessly inadequate.

I walked over to the bedside and sat down in the only available chair, reaching for Penny's large, calloused hand. I needed to do _something;_ hospitals make me nervous. Mostly because of the large amount of really important, lifesaving, really breakable stuff in them.

"Hey, big guy." I said quietly. "How's it going?"

Nothing. Just the slow bleep, bleep of the heart monitor. Was this normal? How fast did hearts go normally? Right now, mine was pounding a frantic rhythm in my chest.

I swallowed and looked around for Tom. He saw my expression, and edged away immediately. "Going to get tea." He told me quickly, and left me alone.

Hey!

Looking back at my now ex-partner's inert body, I suddenly clocked the piece of card that had been neatly placed on top of the blankets there. Was this hospital procedure? Somehow, I didn't really think so.

Hesitantly, I reached up and took the square sheet of paper off Penny's chest. Printed on it, in neat block capitals was a name:

**Red Malcolm- Family Undertakers.**

**The Institute.**

And then, written neatly underneath it, just nine words.

_With our compliments. Stop investigating, Cooper and Benedict.  
_

Oh, no.


	8. Brief Encounters and A Cake Shop

That note stayed in my mind for the entire car ride back, haunting me every time I closed my eyelids. The meaning was clear enough, sadly, and despite Penny's apparent health- insofar as he wasn't worse than before- the fact remained that they could've seriously hurt him. In Glaring Dude terms, he was a 'liability', because he couldn't exactly defend himself. At all.

When Tom pulled up outside our house, I couldn't get out of the car fast enough. The closed, cramped space was playing havoc with my nerves, and the small dining room wasn't much better.

"Y'alright, Hu?" That was Tom, following me into the house and wearing an expression that looked like he'd finally noticed my silence.

The simple answer was no: no, I wasn't alright. No, because I was struggling to cope with multiple threats: threats to my sanity and/or free will (take your pick) because of Will, threats to my well-being, threats to Penny, and the potential threat of the Institute and failing the mission that I was supposed to fulfil.

I didn't tell him that, though.

"Tired. Going to bed." I didn't tell him a direct lie; he could sniff that out at a mile- possibly more, on a good day. Tom smiled worriedly, then, wonderfully and unexpectedly leaned forwards, crushing me into a warm-spices-and-cooking smell. I swallowed past the lump in my throat, blinking back those annoying eye-pricklings that inevitably meant tears.

"Love you, Mara. You _can _tell me anything, you know."

"Yeah. I know."

We stayed there for a moment, luxuriating simply in the wonderful thing that you should never, ever undervalue: family love. But then Pawla mooched up from the living room for attention, winding hopefully around our ankles, and I broke free to pick her up and cuddle her to me. My stupid, wonderful cat.

"Can you feed her?"

"Yup."

I smiled, and headed upstairs, depositing my trusty tabby on the landing and shutting the door firmly behind me. I hadn't been lying at the time: I really had been intending to go to bed. But...looking at my room- my _violated _room, I should say, seeing as the last time I was here I'd been under the influence of those two creeps- I knew that sleep here would be a long time coming.

Sorry, Tom. This called for drastic measures.

Cushion, blanket, 'Pod: check. I wouldn't need anything else.

My brother was in the kitchen when I sneaked downstairs- cooking was his form of intensive therapy- so I stole through the dining room like a thief, leaving my apologetic note on the table. He'd read it eventually- if not, he'd soon realise where I'd gone anyway. Both Fred and Tom hated this particular habit of mine- and honestly, I thought I'd kicked it long ago- but not tonight. Tonight I needed comfort, familiarity, safety.

The stars greeted me like old friends as I creaked open the back door, stepping back out into the cold embrace of the autumn air. I breathed out smoke into the night, painting the black sky grey for a couple of seconds. Already the outside was beginning to calm me.

I wouldn't be going far tonight.

Booted feet crunching ever-so-slightly on the gravel path, I crept through the sadly overgrown garden- unfortunately, none of us Coopers had green thumbs- and into the woods nestled behind it. I didn't need a torch; I knew these trees far too well for that. Their branches were just visible in the half-light, their skeletons beginning to show as the leaves started to wither and crisp. The particular tree I wanted was a large, sturdy affair, with handily-grown footholds and a wide fork perfect for leaning against. Levering myself into its confines, I put the cushion at my back and wrapped the blanket around me, plugging my ear straight into a soothing classical piece. I wasn't scared: after all, what power was deadlier than mine?

Nestled in the confines of the forest, though, I was free to relax, and for the first time today, I allowed my thoughts to drift in the direction of my supposed Soulfinder. An enigma, if ever there was one. How had he managed to survive in the Institute without being damaged or interrogated in some way? We were certain that it was connected to the virus somehow- all we'd wanted was the paperwork and a lead on the criminal Savant ring. Will was- as far as I knew- strong, capable and relatively smart. _And _connected to the Savant Net. They'd have been mad not to exploit him in some way. How long had he been imprisoned? Well, whatever: I'd have to watch my step, both because of what might have happened at the Institute, and the stupid Soulfinder thing-

Woah! Let's stop that thought there. Anger towards Fred washed up in me, and I brutally quashed it- yes, let's complicate my feelings even more. I was like a cat's cradle of conflicting emotions at the moment, and it rankled hugely. The rule, I told myself, was simple: family first. Soulfinders were always, _always_ bad news. At least, in my family they were.

Instead, I leant against the tree's rough spine, Chopin throbbing in my ears, leaves and stars dancing in the sky above me. Cradled my the soft breeze, sleep soon stole me away.

When I walked into the kitchen next morning, mind reeling from the best nights' sleep I'd had in a month, a rather unexpected surprise was waiting for me: in other words, Fred in a good mood.

"Mar! Pull up a chair!" He greeted my sleep-sodden expression with a broad grin and an airy wave. "Been out drinking again, eh?"

I mumbled something along the lines of 'Noofcoursenothaha' and shuffled towards the kettle for my brain starting cup of tea- a British essential.

Fred watched me as I busied myself with the cup-and-teabag ritual, and waited until the finished article had been brought to the table before attempting to strike. I'd anticipated this, though, with Fred, you had to strike first!

"Where's Tom?"

He shrugged. "Lying in? You know what a lazy sod he is sometimes."

I grinned at that, taking a good long slug of tea. "You do the same- same genes, same faults!"

"I never lie in." He said flatly, cutting me off with a razor-blade of a comment. His expression closed, shutters falling behind his rich brown eyes, a sick feeling of dread sank in my stomach along with the drink. What had I said? "Anyway mind telling me why you lost the papers?"

Oh, it was too early, way too early for this! "Yes."

"Maaara." He groaned. "Is that why the restaurant's trashed?"

"I refuse to speak to anyone without my lawyer." My temper was rising with my brothers; one of the only things we shared was a gunpowder fuse.

"Mara, you can't keep doing this!" Fred ground the heels of his palm into his eyes in frustration. My power, waking up along with my brain, started to tentatively rattle the sugar bowl. I reined it in- with an effort, staring at a star-shaped scar on my right arm (splintered branch, about two years ago). I certainly didn't need to give Fred more ammo.

"I'll talk to you tonight." I told him firmly. "Can today be a nice, non-confrontational day?"

Fred frowned. I waggled both eyebrows at him, and a reluctant smile curled the corners of his mouth. For a moment, I was looking at Old Fred again.

See, there are two sides to my brother. Before The Incident (there are lots of those in my family) he was happy, outgoing, friendly and cheeky- in short, a lovely person. In the shock that followed, he morphed from grief-stricken into a sullen, angry introvert. I understood why- and I was beginning to even more- but did he have to take it out on everyone all the time?

"See you tonight, bro." I told him, dumping the mug in the sink. "Love you!"  
I barely caught his response as I left for my room, but his whisper broke my heart.

* * *

Later on- after helping Tom clear out the rest of the restaurant- I took my beloved moped into London to look at the Institute. Well, I had to start somewhere, but as I walked onto the pavement outside, I wished it had been somewhere else. This time a couple of days ago, I'd been huddled on the pavement, preparing for a disastrous mission. Without Penny...without Will. Crikey. The world was starting to have a habit of turning itself on its head.

"Mara?"

Oh, it was wobbling on its axes again. With an air of being in a dream, I turned and saw Will Benedict (who else?) strolling up the street towards me. A surge of happiness rose like a bubble in me; I tried and failed to squish it down.

Then again, I was wearing my brother's coat, my oldest pair of jeans, and no makeup. Oh, good.

I edged backwards, back down the street, attempting to mix in with the crowd as I did so, but no use: he appeared magically out from behind some old man and grabbed my hand. A jolt of electricity shot up my arm as he did so, and I jumped.

"There you are! You're not getting away again before I've explained myself." He said firmly.

At that moment, I really didn't have a problem with that. Then my brain kicked in.

"Sorry- _what?" _

"Come on." He said, running his free hand through his hair. "You've been running away from me ever since we met. Can I at least explain myself?"

"Uh..."

"Come on, Mara Cooper. We're supposed to be figuring out this virus, anyway. I'll buy you a coffee!" He said hopefully.

Oh, yeah.

My reluctance must have been written clearly in my face, because he added "Please?"

"Okay." The word popped out of my mouth before I could think it through. He grinned hugely, lighting up again with happiness. I smiled back uncertainly, unsure whether he was tracking me down because he actually wanted to be with me... his touch had sent a hell of a feeling zinging through my body. I hoped he felt the same way.

"Come on, then, Cooper. Know anywhere good?"

"Yup. There's a cake shop outside Putney. Does the best coffee _cake _I've ever had."

"Coffee cake? Ah, damn it woman, you've found my weakness." He headed down the street, and although I thought he would, he didn't drop my hand.

And I didn't want him to.

* * *

Ten minutes later saw us plonked in the cafe outside Putney. It really was cute: set in a quaint little street, and decked out inside with bunting and colourful, messy paintings. It was artsy and bright, and I loved it. I sat at a small table for two in the corner whilst Will went up to the counter to order, making the waitress flutter at him. I gave her the stink-eye until he'd come back- she was pretty, flirty and busty- I had a hard time believing that she didn't get all the boys she wanted. I hated her already for making me conscious of my many scars and general imperfections. Back off!

He grinned at me on delivering two slices of cake and a cup of tea. "I didn't know what you wanted, so I guessed."

"Oh." I said, half surprised and half pleased. "Go on, then. Consider this a test."

"Indeed." He raised an eyebrow, and grinned. "Okay. I had a hunch you were a lemon-cheesecake kinda gal...but then I saw _this." _

I looked on with astonishment as he unloaded a meringue from the tray, complete with a fruit compote. "They serve _this? _Oh my god!" I have to explain, I adore anything overly sugary.

"Good choice?"

"Hell, yeah!" I had a hunch that my face was tomato-red, but I couldn't stop the smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that it was Waitress-Girl's turn to stinkeye me. Hah! Rather too late, I added "Thank you!"

"Don't mention it." He told me, before unloading a coffee cake from the tray. "Sorry about yesterday." He told me sincerely. "I got...well, I was a bit overloaded. With everything."

"I should really be saying sorry." I didn't do this too often. Embarrassed, I poked a fork into my meringue, splitting the fragile surface. "Honestly, I was a bit shocked."

"Still shocked?"

"Just a little bit." Just a lot. Nature must have done a whole lot of wrangling to get me paired with this good-looking guy, and then getting us to meet when we literally lived on opposite sides of the world. What were the odds? I frowned absently, and then put a forkful of the meringue into my mouth. Aaah...pure, sugary bliss.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked me suddenly.

"Nothing, really."  
"It's my job to know everything." He raised his hands mock-spookily. "Wooo!"

I laughed- the adrenaline boost I'd gotten from this was giving me a high. "Well, ask questions!"

"Okay then, Miss Cooper. Fancy a slice of my cake?"

I pursed my lips in mock thought. "Okay, you've won me over."

"Careful." He told me, holding a forkful out to me. I reached out to take the fork, but-

"Nu-uh. Come on!"

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Fine!" Conscious of almost everyone in the cafe's eyes on me, I leaned forwards and Will skilfully levered the cake into my mouth. I held up my hands in mock celebration. "Ta-da!"

"Verdict?"

"Good." Really good, but I suspected he wasn't talking about the cake.

"Excellent." The moment stretched out for about five times longer than it was supposed to, but then again, I couldn't stop looking into his dark, almost black eyes. The bruise was starting to fade from his cheek, leaving behind it an interesting brown-yellow colour. I wondered if he was going to talk about hte mission; oddly, I really didn't want him to. Thankfully, though, after about an eternity, he broke the silence.

"Since yesterday you left me in the middle of the sea, mind telling me why you were _in _it in the first place?"

"It calms me." I told him, thankful for a diversion. "It's...turbulent. Stormy. Dangerous. A bit like me. I'm called after it, anyway." I suspected that I wasn't really, but I liked to calm myself with the belief that my mother had known what she was doing in at least one aspect of my life.  
"Mara. As in, _mar_?"

"Yup. Speak Spanish, do you?"

"I've travelled a lot." He admitted with a grin.

Will was sitting at my table, drinking coffee. He looked as though he'd just dropped in from a space ship: that was how weird it was to see him in such an ordinary place. Despite that, a blush scalded my cheeks again as he glanced upwards and smiled.

"We seem to be making a habit of this."

"Mmmm." I didn't know what to say to that, so busied myself with the tea, grabbing the sugar bowl. Tea was what I needed. Tea, with a lot of sugar. Anything to stop me blushing!

Embarrassingly, here, in my home territory, I was too shy to look at him properly. After I finished, though, there wasn't any excuse. Gritting my teeth, I took the mug off the tray, stirring vigorously and plonking it down emphatically.

"Tea? Really?"

"Don't you like it?"

"Can't stand the stuff. Watery."

I looked up through strands of hair. He'd definitely laid down the challenge. Being me, I rose to it immediately. "Tea is the best thing ever invented. It's like a cure-all in times of crisis. Maybe you're too hard core for it."

He grinned. I liked it when he did that. His whole face lit up from inside, like there was a candle behind his eyes. "Maybe I am." He said. "Too daredevil by half for tea."

Oooh. Daredevil, eh?

"The most daredevil thing you've ever done?"

"They don't call me 'Wacky Will' for nothing, you know." He told me jokingly. "I dunno...trekked across the Rockies? Bungee-jumped over a gorge?"

Woah. My eyes widened involuntarily. He wasn't joking when he said daredevil. Talk about random. What could I say that sounded casual?

"Where was the gorge?"

"Uhh...New Zealand, I think."

Oh, you had to be kidding me. That's irony, baby. Next to me, the sugar pot trembled, almost as if in sympathy with me.

"Mara? You okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, fine. I...I used to live there, you know. Wellington."

"Do you miss it there?"

It was such a sweet question that I almost burst into tears. That was something I'd never discussed with anyone. "Yeah...yeah, I do. A lot."

"Hey, hey. Maybe we can go and visit later on." He leaned over and squeezed my hand, sending a frisson of energy through me. Incredibly, the sugar pot stilled its suicidal jittering, saving its own skin. Wow.

That was handy.

Maybe this Soulfinder lark was good for something after all. Though I wasn't sure how 'we' was going to work out. I didn't think that he'd want me after seeing what I could do- what I had done. Most people didn't. A little voice at the back of my mind urged me to _think, _to keep my guard up- but easier said than done. I didn't care about Fred; I didn't want to think.

I really hoped that I could dig myself out of the hole I was digging for myself.


	9. A Good (Or Bad) Old Shoot Out

When we left the coffee shop about fifteen minutes later, I had to admit that I was walking on air. Here I was, walking down the street hand in hand with someone- a _gorgeous _someone, feeling happier than I had in a long, long time. Will had managed to somehow lift me out of my worry and stress and plonk me in fairyland. Or meringueland: take your pick.

We took the extended tour of Putney to my moped, taking several long-cuts (at my direction, seeing as Will had no idea where he was going) and eventually ended up on the start I'd started off at, about two hours too late. Will raised both eyebrows on seeing my baby parked on the kerb.

"Vespa. Cool."

"Cost a bomb." I told him, looking proudly at it. "Saved up for about a year to buy it, too." It was true. I was looking at one year's worth of savings. But it was worth every single penny. I polished it every week and every time I rode it, I pictured myself riding down the streets of Paris- or Rome. Preferably Rome.

If Will owned one, two or even ten, he was tactful enough not to mention it. Just then, Big Ben- a couple of miles down the river- dimly chimed two. _Two?!_ Where the hell had the time gone? What would Fred and Tom be thinking? Fred, especially.

My happy little bubble popped like a soap sud, leaving cold, grey reality to flood into its place. What had I been _thinking? _Idiot! Keep on guard? What the hell happened to being wary? Not falling for anyone, not talking, _definitely _not walking hand in hand down a street in broad daylight!

"I've got to go." I snatched my helmet from where it had been padlocked onto the handles and plonked onto my head, fumbling with the buckle in my haste.

"Woah, woah, woah! What's the rush, honey?"

"I'm _not _a honey." I scowled at him. "I have deadlines to meet. Unlike _some_, I'm not on holiday. I work. I have a paper to do." Redo actually, seeing as I'd given the first draft to creepy guy.

"There you go again."

"What?"

"Running away. Every time I try, it's like you've got a fire under your tail. What's the rush? Am I really that scary?"

"Sorry, but it's not all about you. I've only known you two days."

"You're my _Soulfinder." _He said passionately.

"What does that even mean?" I demanded. I was beginning to _hate _that word. "It means no choice. It means moving to America, away from my family- am I wrong? It means hurting people you care about-"

"Excuses!"

"You shut up! You don't know anything-" I was beginning to lose my temper; my Vespa was jittering alarmingly- as I watched in horror, a crack snaked across the wing mirror, marring the perfect glimmering silver.

"Oh _no_!" I cried, hands flying up to my mouth. My moped! My perfect, polished moped! Oh my god! I was going to break it!

Desperate for anything to stop the rocking, I grabbed for Will's hand, instinctively slipping my fingers into his palm. My skin tingled furiously, and- thank god!- the bike stopped shaking. I let out a long, shaky breath, and immediately felt stupid.

"Sorry." I told him- with an effort. I risked glancing into his eyes- and dropped them immediately on realising that he was staring at me with those intensely dark eyes. Almost absent-mindedly, his hand reached up and cupped my cheek.

Then he looked up; blanched white; threw me sideways across the road. The world tilted in a sickening whirl of colour as I remembered basic training, rolled to break my fall and levered myself into a crouch at top speed. The road ahead was clear; what was going-

"_Here!" _Something yanked hard on my arm, jerking me into a smaller side road and slamming my back against the extremely solid wall. Completely disoriented and confused, I stared at Will –who had pressed himself _very _close to me-with something approaching panic. He was so tall and broad he blocked out almost everything else.

_Tell me what's going on! _I demanded.

_Two people walking down the road. I think they're the café goons. _He said tersely, mind touching mine with butterfly lightness. I bit my lip as the casual contact- both physical and mental- sent sparks zipping through my veins, but wariness, wonderful wariness, which had been drilled into me almost as soon as I could talk, overruled everything else.

_How sure?_

_Remember I can sense threats? They're giving it off like skunks. _

_Ah. _Well, better safe than sorry. My mind raced, thinking up a game plan, drawing on years of sitting at board meetings and being in action. How could we stop them from recognising us? The road was broad enough for us to be seen, that was for sure. Running would attract too much attention for seasoned professionals like them. And I needed to see their faces, find out if there were any new players in this game.

There was only one thing for it.

Either walk away from my bike...my beloved bike! Which would also mean running the risk of them choosing to walk the same way as us...or...

_Don't freak out, _I told Will quickly, and before I could scream at myself for being an idiot, I put my hands on either side of his face, and drew his head close down to mine. I was betting on the fact that they wouldn't take any notice of a snogging couple on the kerbside- they didn't look like the voyeuristic type to me.

His breathing hitched; sped up; his hands automatically encircled my waist. Mine did the same, and my heart kick-started into a frantic sprint for two very different reasons. We were practically nose to nose, dark eye to blue. I hoped he was at least struggling with the same emotions as me, because the temptation to lean forwards just that little bit further and actually kiss him was almost overwhelming.

Almost.

But-

_Look out! _He yelled, pulling me down just as the brickwork above my head buckled. A crack rippled through my head as my helmet cracked against the wall...

What was that?

Oh my God. Was that...had that been a _bullet_?

Crouched on the side of the road, I jammed my helmet further down on my head and scanned the street. The man and woman were standing behind a car. She was holding a gun; he was watching us anonymously from behind sunglasses and a hood.

A sense of distinct unreality descended on everything.

I scanned them, taking in everything as adrenaline flooded my system and boosted everything into HD quality. Yes, it was Freaky Woman, but there was another guy...one wearing a trench coat and a hut pulled down low over his face. It wasn't the other man...but he looked familiar. Who was he?

Before I had the chance to examine him properly, she raised the gun again.

Will dove in front of me.

She took aim.

And in that split second I panicked, dropped all of my barriers, let out a flood of power that smashed across the street like a tsunami.

Every car window smashed on the spot; glass rained through the air; the streetlamp exploded; the pavement cracked. She dropped the gun, the man yelled something at her- "_It's the girl! He said not to shoot her_!"- before the windscreen wipers threw themselves off the bonnet at him.

I cowered as glass showered down on my head in a deadly rainstorm, ears ringing with the impact of my power. My head was swimming; eyes watering. Eventually, the humming stopped, leaving me crouched on the floor.

Then I let out a shaky breath and let my hands drop so I could run them through my hair. They were shaking like I was a recovering alcoholic and my skin was clammy cold with sweat. My heart was pounding like a runaway express train. That had been way too close. Way, _way _too close for comfort.

Will, for once, didn't say anything. He just held me gently, and that, weirdly, comforted me better than anything else I could think of. He was like a permanent Mara-monitor. I leant forwards, letting my head fall against his shoulder, breathing in cologne and mint.

"You're the craziest person I think I've ever met, you know that?" He told me softly. "And that's saying something."

I let my head bang back against the wall again. "Not crazy; just desperate."

"Well, I won't argue on that one." He chuckled, once, in that shaky way people have when they're relieved but don't want to admit it. I knew that feeling well.

"Were they the cafe goons?"

"Guess so. Didn't recognise the other one."

"How did they know who we were?" I took a deep breath, trying to stop the shaking. "They couldn't see our faces." What had they said? '_It's the girl...he said not to shoot her.' _They must have recognised me from the cafe...but why would they shoot Will and not me? After all, I was just as much of a threat as him- we were both investigating the same thing.

"Search me. But we'd better go now, in case they come back."

"Fred's gonna be wondering where I am."

"Another brother?" I smiled, grateful for the distraction.

"I only have two! Fred's...well. The stricter one."

"Only two brothers...wonder what that's like." He mused.

"Quiet." I told him. "Two older brothers make life easier. I'm the youngest."

He laughed.

"_What?"_

"You're the Mini Cooper!"

"God save me." I rolled my eyes, standing from my crouch. I checked around the side of the wall for potential would-be assassins (though, apparently, they weren't supposed to shoot me) but saw nothing. They must have hightailed it who knew where. There was a small white square of paper lying just away from it which definitely _hadn't _been there when I'd been flung across the road. Glass shards were sprinkled over it. Was it possible...had they dropped it there? Could it actually be something useful? God, I hoped so, because I wasn't sure where to start investigating this whole can of worms that had been assigned to me. I picked it up and popped it in my pocket for further investigation. Couldn't hurt.

"Still on for this mission?" He called after me. Back to his devil-may-care self, then.

_Shhh! They're not so far away. _

_Ah. Bossy Cooper. I've fallen for a dominatrix. _

_You haven't fallen for anybody. _I told him sternly. _Yes, fine, mission, whatever. When? We need to find out who that guy is and where their base is. _

_I'll swing by and collect you._

_Woah, I'll collect myself. When?_

_Nu-uh. I'll come and collect you. You're going to meet the family._

I almost choked in the act of booting up the moped. _You WHAT? I'm your mission partner!_

_Well, it's always good to socialise. _

_Socialise be damned! _I glanced sideways at him; he winked. Frustratingly, that didn't annoy me as much as it would have done that morning. Worse, it made me smile.

_Come on, Mini Cooper. Play nice! You'll like them. Yves' and Zed's Soulfinders are Brits too._

_I am a Kiwi. There's a difference. _I told him in a dignity-at-all-times sort of way, and roared off.

It was best if I left it at that.

* * *

By the time I got home, my mind was spinning so much I felt rather like a living gyroscope. Will...coffee cake...moped...shooting..._shooting_...mysterious-yet-familiar creepy guy...they all blurred together in one gigantic collage of extremely confusing proportions.

The only thing for it was work: the good, hard, slogging, brain-numbing kind of work. In other words, getting to grips with this mission. I had minimal evidence and an ever-shrinking amount of time to track down a virus and a link to the criminal Savant ring. Ah well- from what I'd heard about the Benedicts, I wouldn't have much trouble with Will around. That family seemed to be a positive magnet for trouble.

The paper that I'd found on the street ended up being about four random sets of 5-number chains. A code! Obviously. But after about half an hour trying fruitlessly to crack that, I gave up. I'd need some serious computer tech to break that one. Perhaps I'd ask Fred later; the scientific lab he worked in had a branch of ICT. In my experience, nerds were generally the best people to have on side when solving riddles.

The other thing I had was the card that they'd left Penny in hospital. It wasn't handwritten, _but_ (and this was the big 'but') it was printed on a thick, old fashioned creamy business card. The watermark in the corner, stamped with a large 'M', kind of gave it away. This was real, quality, expensive paper; not easily found in London. Ha! One quick Google later and I'd tracked it down to a certain 'Malcolm & Sons' in west Grenwich. Bingo! Gotcha.

That had been ridiculously easy.

Now all I had to do was track down the people who bought the stock from that store, find out where they were based, and have a quick nosey, preferably without finding more handsome boys in the cupboard or having my partner suddenly and inconveniently incapacitated. Actually...quickly, I texted one of the research team- Yolanda, and forwarded the details on Malcolm and Sons. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'd have the results. It was more practical this way- even if he had links to the criminal Savants, he wouldn't be able to pass on details about my appearance to his higher-ups.

Maybe I'd have this wrapped up more quickly than I thought.

Fred popped his head round my bedroom door at about half seven. "Hey, Mar."

I looked up, bleary eyed. I'd better not tell him about the shooting- he'd probably blow his top. "Hey, Fred. Wassup?"

He smiled tightly and came in, shutting the door gently behind him. "Just wondering...I don't suppose you went to Putney today?"

What?

"Er, yeah. How d'you know?"

"One of my mates saw you. Did you go past the Institute?"

"Yup."

"I don't suppose you...saw anyone there? Suspicious looking?"

"Yeah...actually we did. Why?"

"Who were you with?"

Oh, no. A small ball of dread congealed in my stomach. What could I say?

"Friend." I said evasively. "Used to go out with him." Okay, how was this for a strategy: lie your head off. Fred didn't look convinced, but I decided to change tack right there. "We saw two people walking down the road to the Institute- one was the creepy woman, and a random guy."

"Did you see his face?"

"Don't sound so worried! No, I didn't. Fred, I'm really busy. I don't suppose I could come round to the labs tomorrow and-"

"No. Sorry Mara, we're busy there too."  
"I'll only be a minute-"

"No!"

"Okay, okay!" I held up both hands as he got up suddenly. "Fine, I won't go!"

The door shut behind me. For heaven's sake! What was his _problem? _

The sudden splintering noise and jolt of pain recalled me to the present: my tea cup had fragmented. Pearly china sprinkled my desk, along with dark red spatters. Oh, bugger! I'd cut my hand open again!

The next ten minutes were spent swearing and, needless to say, bandaging what was going to be _another_ scar.

My family was such a mess.

I was dreading meeting the Benedicts tomorrow.


	10. Meeting the Benedicts

_In the dream, I was six years old again, and listening to my mother sing me a lullaby. We were in Wellington; the windows were open to admit the summer air, revealing a gorgeously blue sky and the jagged hills behind. On clear days, she held me up so I could peer across the bay and spot the South Island in the distance._

"_Old Macdonald had a farm...was that the doorbell? Won't be a minute, sweetheart." _

_She stopped singing- she had a lovely sweet voice, I remember - tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear, and straightened up from her crouch at the sound of the buzzer. Not happy at being left behind, I squirmed around on the carpet to stare at her retreating back. Tommy, who had been sitting next to me, industriously colouring in, looked up as well, scrubbing green felt-tip all over his dark ginger mop of curls._

"_Oozat?" I demanded. He shrugged, and offered me a pink pen. _

_In the middle of colouring my palm fuchsia, my mother clanked the lock open and swung the door back. It was only then that I saw Fred-sixteen by then-loitering in the hallway, watching her, blue eyes serious and dark._

"_Oh...it's you." Her voice changed- changed enough for me to sit up and take notice. It held a strange mixture of dread and pleasure. "What...what are you doing here?"_

_Fred, standing in the doorway, stiffened. Upset- sensing the tension thickening in the house- I crawled over to Tommy and sat myself on his sketchbook in an attempt to get attention. Even then, he was sweet, and gave me a big hug._

"_Can't a man see his children when he wants to?"_

"_No! You can't!" _

_The walls were closing in on me; suddenly Fred was holding hands with a beautiful blonde woman, walking away from me down a long street...a street that led to the Institute. I cried out his name; he ignored me, and I turned away in disgust...Someone was aiming a gun at me; when I looked closer, I saw that it was Will, grinning an insane grin that clashed horribly with his features._

"_I'll take care of you, shall I?" He asked, and fired._

Pain.

I jolted upwards in bed, drenched in cold sweat, hand flying to my shoulder. It burned viciously underneath my fingertips, and I pressed hard on the red-hot source, turning my face into the pillow to muffle a whimper even as the sticky strands of sleep cleared from my brain.

For a moment there was nothing but my desperate breathing, racing heart and burning shoulder. Then- almost as suddenly as it had appeared- it faded away, leaving me stranded far from sleep and on the edge of panicking. I breathed again, slowly, calmly, like Dom had taught me, until I'd gotten that under control as well.

Only then did I lift my face from the pillow, and groan. Flashbacks, trauma, call it what you like: injuries had a habit of bothering me big-time. And a gunshot wound, even one miraculously healed by Xav, would definitely be a big thing for my battered brain to handle. Having more scars than a blind chef should come with some advantages, but apparently not.

Damn it.

Sleep well and truly out of the question, I pushed the sheets back and looked out of the window. It was still dark, but clear enough with the promise of dawn for me to see that every surface had been thickly layered with frost, giving the trees a velvety, ethereal sheen. Absolutely gorgeous, but bad for business.

As I secretively tried my hand at scrambled eggs in Tom's lovingly cleaned kitchen (hence the 'secret' bit), the dream came back to me in bits and bobs, like flashbacks you get of the night before after drinking way too much.

What I remembered thoroughly freaked me out. What the hell had I been thinking about? Fred's Soulfinder...a mysterious man at the door...evil Will. The last one freaked me out the most, because no matter how nice or brave he was when he were together, I had the impression that there was something he wasn't telling me about his time in the Institute, and I didn't like it. At all. Maybe I'd find out today, when I went to see all the other Benedicts. But I couldn't trust him until I knew what was going on...

My thoughts turned to Will's family. I wonder what they were like? Six brothers...woah. I bet they'd all be tall, dark and good-looking, like Will, Yves, Xav and Zed. And brave. And kind. And...let's stop there.

And the Soulfinders? Probably tall, curvy and gorgeous, if I was being honest, seeing as the boys were so...well. Sexy. One of them- the one with the weird name. Phoenix- would be titian-haired with an alabaster-fine complexion and a perfect social manner. The other one-name unknown- would be platinum blonde and blue-eyed. Both of them coming from the aristocracy, and enjoying shooting parties, champagne and rising at eleven every morning. Oh, God. What was I doing? What was Will thinking? How could he bring a scarred, damaged, infamously-gifted person with a hatred of the word 'Soulfinder' into his house? Saul liked me, yes, and I'd met the other boys, but...

The smell of burning recalled me back to the present- that and Tom's swearing.

"MARA! WHAT THE _HELL _ARE YOU DOING IN MY KITCHEN?!"

Ooops. I'd burnt the eggs.

* * *

I faffed around for a good hour after that, checking and re-checking my phone in case Yolanda, Liz (my best friend), or, let's be honest, Will, had sent me a text. He hadn't told me when he was picking up- one of the reasons I hated not driving myself- and so I wandered around the house, generally getting under Tom's feet as much as possible.

"Mara! Go ring Liz; get out from under my feet! What's going on!?" He roared finally, after I'd tripped and sent a tray of sandwiches flying. Thanks to his telekinesis, they didn't smash on the ground, but it was the final straw in a list of mishaps.

"Uh...I'm...Will'spickingmeup." Maybe it was best if I said it in a big rush. Tom's eyes darkened as the words sank in.

"Mara..."

"Don't 'Mara' me!" I snapped. "He didn't exactly ask me! Its mission stuff anyway. And, uh, I want to thank Xav for healing me after I got shot-"

"You got WHAT?"

"No, er, I'm joking."

"You are _not. When did you get shot?" _

Bugger. I'd forgotten he didn't know about that. Just then, with pinpoint timing, the doorbell rang. Ah! Saved by the bell. Even so, I had a slight déjà-vu moment from the dream this morning, and hoped there wasn't anything unpleasant waiting for me at the other end.

Nope. It was Will.

"Am I interrupting something?" My heart did a little skip, and I grinned hugely.

"Nope. I'm just coming now. SEE YOU, TRU!"

_You are going to tell me about this gunshot wound when you come home, Mara Cooper!  
_Yeah, yeah.

"Tru?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow as I shut the door.

"Old family nickname," I explained. "Tru stands for truth, true, whatever. That's Tom's gift, by the way. He knows when you're lying."

"Have you got one?"

I tried and failed to stop the blush from seeping onto my cheeks. "Yeah. 'Hu'. As in, 'hurricane'."

"Apt."

"That's what I thought. Nice car, by the way."

Let me elaborate. It was slightly more than 'nice', as it was, unfortunately, a Mini Cooper.

"Only two thousand dollars- sorry, pounds. It's ridiculous; cars are so small over here. Hop in."

I obediently hopped, and slammed the door shut on the winter frost. Will got in the other side, and revved the engine enthusiastically before pulling out in a u-turn that James Bond would have been proud of.

"If we crash, I'm not gonna be happy."

"If you crack the windscreen, I'm not gonna be happy. You try not to lose your rag and I'll try not to fenderbend the car. Deal?"

"If you stick to the Highway Code, I'll buy you coffee cake." I told him. This was, I felt, justified, as he drove like an absolute lunatic. He laughed, and drove with his foot pressed down on the floor all the way to the motorway.

"So, Mara Cooper," he said as we hit the M4, "looking forward to seeing my family?"

"Er. Yes and no. They could hate me on sight, you know."

"Doubtful. Xav thinks you're awesome and Dad knows you anyway. You'll like them; they're all really nice."

"The Soulfinders?"

He grinned. "Worrying, are you? Phoenix is from the East End of London and has an amazing Cockney accent. Sky recently moved to Wrickenridge- that's how she met Zed- and comes from London too. What is it about here? It's like a Savant meeting ground. I don't know them really well, though- I travel too much."

"Okay. What do you like doing _apart _from travelling?"

"Hard one. Coffee cake, obviously. Rock climbing- best thing there is. Skiing, a good book..uh... Action movies- I've seen all of the Bond films back to back, and those really old cheesy World War 2 films that everyone pretends they haven't seen."

"Maybe that's because they haven't. They're cringey at best."

"Oh, a critic! What do you like doing then, Miss Dynamite, apart from breaking and entering?"

"Read, waitress, attempt to cook. Watch films which _aren't _cringey or cheesy, and mostly French. I dance." The last one was added rather self-consciously, because it was the one I cared most about. Will seemed interested, though, and I could have hugged him for that. He was like a candle, banishing the dark shadows of my dream in favour of sunshine and blue skies.

"What dances?"

"Everything! Well, maybe not. Charleston, Jive, American Smooth, Twist, Salsa, Rumba...you name it, I can boogie to it. Except for slow ballroom. Too dull by half." I went to classes with Liv, one of my only non-Savant friends from school. Any exercise was great for tiring me out and controlling both my temper and power, so I practised as much as possible. I'd competed, too, for a while, and won a bunch of trophies, but had quit when I started going on missions.

"I'd like to learn how to dance..." Will mused, running a hand through his hair in a very distracting way. "Never got around to it..."

"I don't teach anybody but professionals." Ha! If only.

"Well, that's okay, because I don't drive anybody but action-film-loving people around in my Mini."

"Woah, don't chuck me out! Truce! Truce! I'll teach you how to Charleston. You'll have to come in a bow tie and tails."

Mainly for my eyes more than anything else.

Will caught my eye and winked. "You're on. And if I'm really good?"

"Then I'll tie your shoelaces together."

He grinned and ruffled my hair before I could stop him. "Competitive, are we?"

I leaned over and ruffled him back, his hair silky underneath my fingertips. It was with a great effort that I pulled my hand away. "Yes, we are."

* * *

The banter lasted all the way to London City, where we beat the London traffic, and finally pulled up in a private parking space. Shivering, I climbed out into the bitterly cold air. "Home, sweet home!"

Will grinned. "You got it!"

I followed, more than a little nervous as we walked up the winding staircase that I'd walked down- was it only a couple of days?- before. Everything about this place spoke _class, _or, really, _money. _As we reached the gleamingly polished door-surrounded by an expanse of gleamingly polished marble- the babble of voices drifted ominously through the wood, stirring up my nerves and making them slosh around worryingly in my stomach. I caught sight of my face in the smooth surfaces, looking pale and stricken.

"Hey, don't worry." Will appeared at my side and slipped an arm around my waist. Despite everything, I was glad for the contact. "No pressure. I haven't told them that you're my Soulfinder; they just think you're another girlfriend. And to Dad, Yves and Xav, you're another _very cool _girlfriend."

"Cheers." I told him acerbically, and, before I could lose my nerve, pushed open the door.

The first thing that hit me was the babble of voices; the second was the owners of those voices. Benedicts were milling around _everywhere. _How did they do it? There were so many of them, all looking so similarly good-looking. I glanced sideways at Will. And yet...I was starting to prefer this one over all of the others.

"Come on." Will told me in an undertone, and steered me through the apartment, passing two faces that I hadn't seen yet and who stared at me suspiciously. Another two Benedict brothers...one of them tall, rangy and with razor-sharp features, whom I didn't like the look of at all.

"Will! Mara! Hey! How's it going?" I looked around to see Xav smiling and waving at me. Glad to see a familiar face, I smiled back.

"Not so bad. I like the apartment better now I'm now trying to escape it."

"Well, it is the latest in modern decor. How could you not? Drink, by the way?"

"Uh...can I just have a lemonade?"

"Sure thing."

As Xav bustled off to fetch the lemonade, I bit my lip and turned on the spot, doing a quick once-over of the apartment. It wasn't _that _full- just intimidating. As I watched, a short, blonde girl detached herself from the side of someone who I thought was Zed and came towards me, beaming. She was blonde, blue-eyed, beaming and open- she must be Sky.

"Hello! I'm Sky, Zed's girlfriend." she told me, dimpling. Will gave me a quick squeeze and detached himself, heading for the living room. Cheers, mate. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Just a bit...overwhelmed." I waved my hand at the room. "It looks like the world and its mother's turned up."

"The Benedict family can be a bit like that." She told me, grinning. "When Zed first told me how many there were, I couldn't believe it!"

"They all seem okay, though..."

"Oh, they're all lovely. It's just a matter of finding..." She trailed off, and I knew enough to guess that she didn't know I was a Savant. Wow- Will had really kept mum about me, which was kind of touching.

"It's okay, I'm a Savant. I'm Mara. Mara Cooper. I work for the Savant Net."

"Do you? That's amazing!"

She was so enthusiastic that I grinned, and that broke the ice more effectively than anything else. As soon as Xav had pressed the lemonade into my hand we were chatting- mostly about music and dance. To my relief, she didn't seem over-the-top gorgeous or posh; instead, she was friendly and open, her accent strong despite a year spent living in the US.

Then-

"Oh my god, Will, darling, how could you not _say _you were bringing over someone extra?" A woman had bustled into the room- short, dark-haired and with sparkling dark eyes. She had an extremely loud voice- and, I suspected, personality. The Benedicts all moved aside hastily as she swept up the room, leaving me stranded in her gaze. Will had kindly buggered off somewhere; typical!

As she moved forwards, I caught sight of a girl behind her- the only one apart from Sky, so she must be Phoenix. She was small, slim and pretty- nothing unusual- but as I caught her blue eye, I sensed a wariness which was matched in my expression: hmm. Seemed that she hadn't had an easy childhood either.

But then Mother Benedict had bustled up to me with all the force of an extremely friendly hurricane and I forgot about anything else. Clasping my free hand in both of hers, she smiled broadly. "_So _nice to have you here, I don't know if you know anybody?"

"Uh...yeah, I'm okay. I know some people."

"Well, we must introduce you!" I shuffled, pinned under her gaze. I hated being the centre of attention; it always made me feel so paranoid!

"Karla, don't scare her!" Saul popped his head around the doorway, saving the day yet again. "It's Mara Cooper- I told you about her a coupl'a days ago."

"Are you _really_? Well, you must tell me all about-"

She trailed off, eyes drifting out of focus in mid-sentence, hands dropping from mine to swing back to her sides. Alarmed, I looked around at everyone else. Why wasn't anyone else worried? Was this normal? Catching my eye, Xav shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry." He said. "Don't worry about it; she does it quite a lot. She'll come round- oh, there we are."

Karla had indeed snapped back into focus- and was staring at me as though I'd just dropped from the sky, having done a complete emotional U-turn. Uh-oh. Something was about to go down, and I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not.

"Mara dear...oh, my dear." She made as if to reach for my hand, but I jerked it back instinctively. The room had suddenly gone rather quiet, except for the blood rushing in my ears like the thunder of waves. I didn't think she noticed, though; she was still in half-trance mode, talking almost to herself. She was like a leaky tap; not stopping, never stopping.

"A life on the run...your mother gone...forced to leave...reliant on your brothers for everything. You hate that, don't you? There's a secret buried there that's still to come out, as well...destruction, always a trail of destruction following you. Worry that you're going to fail-fail your mission, fail university- worry about your brothers...The grief, the pain, the _guilt..._dear, why do you torture yourself so much? Nobody deserves that!"

The room had gone deadly still; I had gone numb. No, worse. Much worse.

I was gutted.

This woman had turned out my entire _life _for these strangers. My life! Everything! _Everything_ I'd ever valued or wanted to keep hidden, on display for the world to see! No!

I knew they were taking me in afresh now, with this stolen knowledge, taking in my scars, my features, everything. How could they? How dare they?

Dreamlike, I turned, set down the glass with pinpoint precision. Saw Xav, watching me with wide eyes; saw Saul hurrying into the kitchen- far too late. Saw Will, barrelling towards me from the living room.

The horrified look in his eyes snapped the trance.

I had to get out. Now. Or I'd smash something. Or worse.

Ignoring everything, I sprinted for the hallway, pushing people aside like they were skittles, not caring about them, not caring about anything except getting as far away as was humanly possible. I threw the front door open- up or down?- and mounted the stairs two at a time, taking me up, up and away as fast as I could, breath singing in my ears.

_Mara. Mara! Talk to me!_

If I could, I would.

I threw open the fire escape door, letting in a blast of November air. Around me stretched London in its entirety- a glorious winter panorama, accented by the pale golden sun. I took two steps onto the flat roof- and crumpled, knees hitting the concrete with a hard _thunk._

Then I started to cry.


	11. Tears on the Rooftop

I hadn't sobbed like this since my mother had left, and then only in the privacy of my room. But these were different- great gulping sobs, like I was drowning in water instead of crying it. I dimly heard myself whooping for breath, cracks skittering out from underneath my fingers in fragmented lines, but through a great sheet of glass- one step removed from the world. All the emotions that I'd fought so hard to suppress over the years came pouring out in one huge flood of grief-a flood that had, honestly, been a long time coming.

"Mara? Mara!"

There was a bang behind me as the fire escape threw itself open and cracked viciously against the wall.

"Go away." I managed to croak out. "Go..."

He didn't listen to me- had he ever?- and seconds later I felt his arms slip around me, gently pulling me back from the floor until I was kneeling against his chest, enveloped in his cologne-and-mint smell. He didn't say anything, just held me, and it was exactly what I needed. Strong arms, protection, and, most of all, the feeling that somebody _cared _about me- cared, not tolerated. I abandoned all pretence of pride, threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his t-shirt.

I sobbed onto his chest for about ten minutes, horribly, helplessly, unable to stop. I had a nasty feeling that I'd drenched the cloth with tears, but, thankfully, he didn't seem to mind at all. The tears refused to halt; I needed to cry them out.

Finally, _finally, _I stuttered to a halt, gulping and hiccupping at the same time, and sank through his embrace to collapse onto the concrete floor, jelly-legged. Will sat down as well, though, as he did, I spotted a kind of bib of tear-stained cloth around his neck. Oops. Trying to regain some composure, I ran hands through my hair and over my face.

"S-sorry..."

"Don't be." He said easily. "I'm sorry, about my mom; I forgot she could be like that. Freaky, if you don't know her."

"It's not _that," _I said, stung. "It's just...what she said."

He blew out a breath. "I knew it was bad- I mean, the whole apartment kinda went quiet. And I had this massive sense that something was wrong. And then...I came into the kitchen and saw you sprint for the door." He chuckled, once. "You took off like a bat out of hell."

I smiled shakily. "Was I that bad?"

"Just a bit. What...uh, what did she say? Was it about Soulfinders?"

I bit back my original retort- that it was none of his business, and blew out a long sigh. He'd held and hugged me while I'd cried all over him- and it was surely his right to find out why.

"In a sense, yes. Just...why we can't be Soulfinders.**"**

"Why not_?" _He demanded in a sudden burst of anger- or, probably, frustration. "_Why not?"_

"I'm going to tell you! It's... It's because...of my brother. Fred." Butterflies exploded to life in my stomach; I bit my lip. Here was half of the secret of our toxic family, about to emerge its ugly head. I wasn't sure I'd like the results.

"About two years ago, when he was about twenty-five, we all travelled to France on holiday. Paris. We checked in with the local Savant Net- you know, just in case. Anyway, when we were there, Fred met his...his Soulfinder. Helene." Memories of a lovely blonde, laughing Normandy girl sprang into my head. Smiling; always smiling. She'd filled the house with light, whilst she'd been with us. "It...it was lovely, to start with. Fred was really happy, cheerful, it was like everything was floating in a golden bubble. But..." I gritted my teeth, and willed away the prickling in my eyes. This was where the fairytale turned sour. "But, Helene worked for the Net too. The French branch. And one day, she went on a mission...she...she didn't come back. Fred was destroyed. It was awful." It _had_ been awful. Fred had gone silent, then devastated, then furious. At nights, me and Tom had heard him sobbing- and then screaming- in his sleep. It wasn't just him- all of us had been shattered by her death. It seemed stupid that one person could wreck a family so much, but she had.

"Mara. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I...haven't finished yet." It was like opening the floodgates- I needed to get the entire thing out in the open, now that there was somebody who would hear the whole story. "When I was smaller, you know I lived in New Zealand."

He nodded. Well, he listened to me. That was a good start.

"Anyway, I lived there with my mum. My dad was killed in action- for the Net- about six, seven months before I was born. I don't think they were that close before he died, though. You know, you apparently can't be happy without your Soulfinder, etcetera. So it was just her, me, Tom and Fred for the next ten years. Fred's about eight years older than me, so it wasn't too bad. Anyway, ten years after he died, she started getting...visits from this guy. I don't remember him too well." Lie: I remembered him extremely well: grey-blue eyes, dark brown hair and a disarmingly cheerful smile. I often thought about the man that had stolen my mother away.

"She gathered us together in the kitchen one night and told us he was...her Soulfinder. Mark, I think his name was. Then, two days later...she vanished. And a week after that, Fred moved us to the UK."

"You were _ten_ when she went?" Will's face was incredulous. "She just _left_?"

"Yeah." Well, I couldn't believe she'd done that, either. "Left with Mark, and left Fred to look after us. He was only eighteen, bless him." Bless all of us.

There. I'd said it all- laid my past absolutely bare for the first time ever. All that was left now was for Will to back off and say that he didn't want any part in a family which caused doom to any kind of love, true or not. Then I could get back to the life before him- a life which suddenly seemed rather cold and boring.

"Mara. Look at me."

Unwillingly, I turned my head sideways to look. He was kneeling next to me, dark eyes fixed on my face with an intensity that made me blush despite _everything_. Slowly, he reached upwards and cupped my cheek in one hand. He looked absolutely gorgeous- and I looked the opposite, red eyed and pale from crying.

"Listen to me, you stubborn Cooper. _It's not your fault._ Do you hear that? _Nothing _about either Fred or your mom is your fault. Being Soulfinders doesn't mean instant death, honestly it doesn't."

"My mum-"

"Chose to leave. It doesn't mean she's dead. And as for Helene- she _chose _to join the Net. But Mara- Yves, Zed and Dad are in the Net too, and they're blissfully happy with their Soulfinders."

It wasn't what I'd been expecting- and yet, it was what I wanted to hear. And that gave me courage, because there was one more thing I needed to know-

"What happened to you in the Institute?"

Will bit his lip. "I told you about my life." I reminded him, and he grinned unwillingly.

"Okay. But...don't freak out."

A snappish response was probably called for here, but I didn't really feel up to it. Instead, I watched as he rolled up his right shirt sleeve almost reluctantly...and, imprinted on the creamy surface of his skin, was a row of lividly red triangular marks, stamped across his arm right up to his elbow.

They were burns. Oh my god, they were burns.

"_Will..." _Horrified, I reached out and touched one- and saw him bite down on his lip. Fury welled up inside me like lava- how could _anyone_ do something like this? "God...Will Benedict, _tell me what happened." _

"It's what happened in the Institute." He told me, half-shrugging- as though it was something casual! "I don't know how, but they managed to track me down... they knew where I was. They...experimented on me, if you will. They wanted to know how acute my sense for threat was. And they wanted me to talk about my connection to the Net. They...recorded everything. Then they said that they...that they were going to take me to the labs...see if I'd be a good enough _guinea pig _for them."

That must have been when Penny and I had barged in and rescued him. God...I couldn't stop looking at those burns. Carefully, I reached out and traced a finger up his arm. They must have hurt a _hell _of a lot. How could he just act like they were nothing? How had I not seen them? How had I only known him...what, four days? I looked up again, into his eyes, and saw a shadow of pain hidden there. "But...haven't you seen Xav? He's a healer, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but they don't just heal overnight."

"But...you're almost as scarred as me!"

"Not quite." He smiled crookedly. "Am I damaged enough for you now?"

"_Damaged?" _I had to stop for a moment. "You are _not _damaged. Do you hear me? You are whole, and annoying, and brave, and good. They're battle scars! Don't you ever think you're damaged, mate! In New Zealand, we have a word for people like you- a hard yakkarer!"

"And you are just as annoying, and just as brave."

"That's different."

"It's not. When I first saw you, you were completely out of your depth, but you saved the situation and got us out. You're determined, completely wild, brave and beautiful. Not to mention scared stiff of your own power and its influence on others- so much that you refuse to see when somebody likes you."

"I-"

"Mara, _I _like you. I really do. It's not an act. We're meant to be together...and, God, I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true!"

So much passion in his voice...I didn't know what to say. Confused, I ran both hands through my hair, trying to clear my head. Will huffed in exasperation.

_There's only one way I'm gonna convince you, isn't there? _He caught hold of my hands and rose to his feet, pulling me up with him. _I don't dance, so..._

And I almost shrieked as he swiftly reached forwards, looped his arm around my waist, his hand around the back of my neck, and swung me downwards in a movie-star style swoon. I barely had time to yell with laughter and surprise before he leant forwards and kissed me, right there on the winter rooftop, surrounded by the London skyscape.

And as soon as that happened, I forgot everything else.

There was just him, and me, and that was all there was in the entire world.

My body turned to fire, ignited by desire and his touch, and I reached up, cupping his face with both hands and drawing him closer, even closer to me. His lips were soft; they moved gently, and I felt secure and free and _right, _somehow, so right for me. He was made for me; perfect for me.

And I was so, so alive.

Eventually- after about a minute, or perhaps more, it wasn't like I'd been timing it- he swung me back upright, so that we were standing even closer to each other than before. I looked up at him shakily; he raised an eyebrow.

"You fight dirty." I told him, and he grinned.

"All's fair in love and war, and this is a bit of both."

"That's...nice to hear." And it was. With that, my entire resistance to this Soulfinder malarkey- which had been shaky for a while- crumbled into smithereens. It wasn't like I'd forfeited my willpower- never that, whatever the price-it was just that I'd realised that I could have so much more than my life than as it stood right now. Will didn't complete me; he complemented me, and that was even better. We could break the cycle of my family, and solve this mission, all in one fell swoop. Hope fluttered to life in my chest, and I smiled, leaning up on tiptoes for another kiss.

Just then, my phone vibrated against my hip.

Damn it. I wriggled my hand free from around Will's neck- he didn't let me go, which I kind of liked- and into my pocket. This could be important.

And it was. Yolanda had finally texted back the details of her research, pointing me to an area- hang on- just outside Calais. _Calais? _That was in France! We were going to France! Bonza!

"Good news?" He asked lightly.

"Er. Sort of. I did some research yesterday; they've pointed me to a complex in Calais as the place where those two goons were working." Thank god for the many mysteries of the Savant Net; it paid to have a group of super-talented researchers on the job sometimes. Calais wasn't too far from London via the Eurostar- about one hour, tops. Rich businessmen travelled there and back every day for their work; getting there'd be a doddle.

"I guess I'd better go to Calais, then."

"I'm coming too, Cooper. And the rest of my family as back-up. How the hell are we going to storm this place on our own?"

"I was thinking stealth mode, to be honest." I rocked back on my heels, looking into his face. I wasn't sure I wanted to risk his family on a potentially lethal mission. Anyway, for reasons unknown, these people didn't want to shoot me, and I was staking my chances on that. The Benedicts- not so much. They'd been perfectly happy to try and gun Will down in broad daylight.

"You are out of your mind, you realise that?"

"Will, I've been trying to find my marbles for the last ten years. It's a bit late to turn back now."

"It's crazy."

"I just want to talk to Dom and Penny before we go, then." I said firmly. "'They're probably using the Institute as their base of operations in England. I think...if we shut down the place in Calais, the Institute won't have any reason to function anymore. And 'cos we're so amazingly talented, it'll work like a dream."

"Crazy." He repeated again, and leaned in closer.

But this time, I was the one that kissed him first.


	12. A Dance and An Invalid

Two minutes later saw Will in the apartment explaining things to his family and me leaning on the railings outside agonising about what was happening to my life.

What had I been _doing? _What had I been _thinking? _Oh God, this was it. I was officially going la-la. I'd gone from reluctant to practically throwing myself at him by the end of half an hour! How was I ever going to live it down? Or up, even? What if he wanted even more? The worst thing was would I _mind _that? What did I really feel? I felt...good when I was with him. Calmer. Happier. Less...restrained, more _me._ A better person, yes. But what did he feel?

"Aargh!" I slammed my hands into the banister; it creaked underneath my fingertips. Frustration welled up in me; I pressed downwards into the solid, unforgiving wood with all of my strength.

My knuckles turned white with the strain, veins stood up underneath the skin. It wasn't enough. Dammit, I wanted to smash something.

_Just _as the chandelier started to tear itself free of the ceiling above my head, my phone rang. Saved by the ringtone. Phew! I fished it out of my pocket- it was getting a workout today- and stabbed the 'accept' button.

"Hello?"

"Hello, stranger!"

Liv. "Hey, Liv. How're you doing?"

"Gosh. You sound so excited to hear me. A little more enthusiasm, if you please! Wait 'til you hear what I've got to tell you. It'll be the most action you've had in _weeks!_"

I seriously doubted that. Still, it was great to hear Liv's voice again- even if it was only the crackly, landline version. Her bouncy, enthusiastic babble was exactly the tonic I needed for most things in my life, even if I couldn't trust her with any of my secrets. Explanation: she was the only non-Savant friend I had.

"Well...you gonna tell me, then? I'm practically smashing things with excitement." As it were.

"No. You're gonna have to see me in person. Because I haven't heard from you in _days. _Come on! Are you busy at the moment?"

Yes. "No, not really."

"Great. 'Cos I'm headed for- what's his name? Oh yeah- George's farm. You know, Deano's dad. Is that alright? Oh, and I invited James, because I know you love him."

"_Deano's dad's farm? Why?" _

"Keep up! It's Bonfire Night! What have you been doing? Fancy meeting there in, say, an hour?"

"Yeah...I won't stand you up. Maybe." I teased her. It was always fun to wind Liv up.

"You'd better not. Good. I'll bring a stereo. Well, see you there!" _Click. _The line disengaged, leaving me holding the phone to my ear like a dummy. Slowly, I pocketed it. Maybe a good long girly chat was what I needed- nothing quite like talking your problems through with friends. Everyone girly chats to some degree (unless you're a guy), but Liv was the undisputed master of it.

"Mara?"

I looked around to see Will leaning casually against the door of the apartment, watching me with those deep, dark eyes. For some annoying reason, I blushed scarlet.

"Yeah?"

"You going?"

Ah. "Er...I've got a Bonfire Night party to go to tonight." I said, feeling suddenly awful about it. And then- ding! "Hey, why don't you come?"

"Bonfire night?"

"Yeah. You know. Remember, remember the fifth of November...do you have that in America? Actually, don't answer that. It's when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament."

"That would have cured the world of politicians forever." He grinned, reaching forwards and catching my hand. "Sounds good. I'll be there...if you give me the address. When you come over to the US, you're going to have to see the fourth July celebrations."

"Will do." I gave him the address- he didn't let go of my hand, but then I didn't really want him to- and then blanched as I checked my watch. "Bugger, gotta go."

"You and your old-fashioned swear words." He raised an eyebrow, and before I could say anything, leaned in and softly kissed me. I forgot everything else, and pulled his head closer, revelling in the sensation, before pulling away sharply, tapping his nose and starting down the long haul of the staircase quickly so that he couldn't see me grinning widely.

"See you later, alligator."

_In a while, crocodile._

* * *

I caught a bus back home, wishing fervently for my scooter the whole way. Ugh. There was just..._something _about public transport that I really, really hated. The dirt, the suspicious-looking people, the delays...take your pick. By the time that I'd actually managed to get through the front door, it was almost time to go, and I only had time to start downloading a map of Calais from the internet before Fred knocked impatiently on the door.

"Mara. You coming to Deano's?"

"Just a minute." I booted Pawla off the bed- she screeched at me and shot underneath the desk instead- and flung open the chest of drawers, opting for a pair of black skinnies and a floaty sea-green top. Nothing wrong with looking pretty, was there? I glanced at my face in the mirror, and wide blue-grey eyes stared back at me. I pushed a hank of hair back, sighed in defeat, and then let go, letting auburn strands obscure my vision again. Oh well.

Fred opened the door before I was finished and glanced around the room. His gaze fell on the computer screen, and his eyes widened. "Calais? Why Calais?"

"Mission stuff. You know, if I told you then I'll have to kill you. With great pleasure."

He elbowed me absently, before I dragged him out. The last thing I wanted was for Fred to start poking around my room- get out! It was my private space, thank you very much.

"By the way, Will's coming tonight. Just saying. Before we go to Calais." Just drop that in casually so that he doesn't make a fuss...

"What? You sure he's still just your mission partner?" Fred asked me sharply. "Hang on- _Calais? _Why Calais?"

"Because that's where the bad guys are, idiot." I raised both eyebrows in response to his incredulous look, and skipped down the stairs to the car. That particular fight could wait for another time.

I hopped into the back seat of the family Fiat, after the customary squabble with Tommy over who got to ride shotgun (I lost, as usual), and closed my eyes. After everything that had happened this week...seeing my friends would be a fantastic way to relax. Everything was starting to feel tenser and tenser, like time was a violin string slowly tightening. There was a storm brewing- we'd stirred up some thunderclouds ever since invading the Institute- and it was going to break over our heads sooner rather than later.

"Hey, Fred?" Tom asked, from the passenger seat.

"Mmmh?"  
"You remember Hal from the Net? Tall bloke, two kids, used to look after me and Mara?"

"Yeah. What about him?"

"He was admitted to hospital yesterday."

"_What?" _I demanded from the back. "Hospital? Is it...is it? You know."

"Yeah." Tom nodded solemnly. "He's got the virus, and it looks bad. Sorry, Mara."

Well, that was my happy moment down the drain. I leaned back in the seat, thunderstruck. I _liked _Hal. I knew him really well- and his family. He was kind, smart, generous, funny, and I'd miss him terribly- oh, we'd still see him, no doubt, but how could an ex-Savant be part of the Savant Net? What could he _do? _The only solution was to stop this thing as fast as possible- to get to Calais as fast as possible.

"Drive faster." I told Fred, jiggling up and down with new-found urgency. Maybe if we drove fast enough, I'd be able to forget all of this. Forget Hal; forget Penny. Fred took the hint; he stepped on the accelerator, and we burnt rubber all the way to the farm, while I leaned against the window and attempted to lose my thoughts along the wayside.

Deano's dad's place was packed with Bonfire Nighters, the old crowd. Deano was one of our old school friends- Fred's school friend- and as a result we found ourselves invited to all of the community bashes. It was thick with people- mostly of the drunk variety- and as soon as I set foot out of the car, a small and enthusiastic lump hurtled into my side and threw me back against the side of the car.

"_There _you are! God, I was getting impatient!"

"You're always impatient!" I laughed, levering myself skilfully out of a hug and leaning back to take in my attacker better. She was small, with straight brown hair and intensely blue eyes set over a determined jaw. She was bouncy, enthusiastic, and, when occasion demanded, intensely focussed. "Hey, Liv."

"Heya yourself, Magic Mara." Fred, who was getting out of the car, raised an eyebrow. Sadly for him, Liv saw that. "Shut up, Alfred. You're just jealous that you don't have any natural rhythm. Dancers are an endangered species, you know." She leaned forwards and thumped him on the arm. And years of rigorous training in the studio with me meant that she could pack a decent punch.

Fred winced- both at his full name and the thump. He never said so, but both Tommy and I suspected that he was rather scared of my friend. This was proved- ha!- when he slunk off quickly to say hi to Deano, and some clandestine Savant buddies of his that came along to the Bonfire celebrations. Mike...and Sarah, I think. I only knew Mike because he'd tried to hit on me once. Needless to say, that hadn't gone well. He'd still been squeaking a week after our encounter.

"Come on, Maaaara." Liv pulled hard on my arm, and waved at Tommy, who waved back. "Hey, hunky!"

"Hey, good-lookin'."

She smirked at that, and tugged me after her, through the crowd of chatting people. "Where's James...oh, there. JAMES! JAMES, YOU ARSE! GET OVER HERE!"

A lanky shape detached itself from the mass near the bonfire and made its way over with a familiar, long-legged stride. "Hey, Mar." He said casually, and pulled me in for a cologne-scented hug. "How's things?"

"So-so. How did Liv manage to drag you over to the farm?"

"You know. She's...well, she's Liv. Pocket dynamo supreme." He smiled and patted her on the head. "The bonfire's been lit. Good, eh?" He breathed out fog into the blue-black night. I looked around to check- it was a blazing, dancing, mesmerizing mass of red and gold against the shadowed surroundings. It was gorgeous, and I sighed happily.

"No fire-gazing for you tonight, Mar. We do our dance, and the fireworks are lit. Deano asked me." She glowed at the mention of our friend, whom she apparently found rather handsome. "Remember, remember, the fifth of November...bugger, what's the rest?"

"Gunpower season and plot? Hang on, _dance?_"

"I thought it was treason. Whatever, anyway. It's going to be great! Come on- come _on_!" I glanced up at James; he smiled in that well known 'there's no stopping her' expression. It was true: it was easier to stop a flying train than Olivia Johnston.

She dragged us up to the farmhouse, where a barn had been cleared out next to the farmhouse for people to chat and shelter from the cold in. And dance, apparently, because a large crowd of people had gathered there and were now looking expectantly at me. I looked at Liv.

"You're doing the dancing, aren't you?"

She shuffled her feet in almost-embarrassment. Uh-oh.

"Well...you dance better with James than me. So..."

Oh no.

"So, you're doing the dance! Come on! I said you'd be here; they're waiting for you!" And with that, she flung a pair of shoes at me and pushed me and James towards the barn. God, I hated that girl sometimes. She was probably going to use this opportunity to speak to Deano, for heaven's sake! And everyone was going to be looking at me...

I glared at her retreating back and looked helplessly at James. "Did you know about this?"

He shook his head. "Not until she dragged me to the farm. Cheer up, Mara! At least we're not competing this time. We could fluff all the moves and they'd still think we were amazing."

"Yeah..." I shook my head, but the temptation to dance was too strong to make a dignified exit. Instead, almost unconsciously, I kicked off my shoes and socks- well, who dances in _socks_?- and pulled Liv's heels on. They were one of my favourite pairs- strappy and gold. She must have been feeling guilty!

James raised an eyebrow and proffered his arm. "Shall we walk, mademoiselle? No, wait- _allons-y?_"

"_Bien sûr. Je dirais que ton français s'améliore." _

"Stop le boasting, missy." And with that, he led me into the crowded barn. Everyone turned to look at us as we slipped into the easy partnership that had won us so many competitions before. We'd danced with each other for so long- ever since I'd stumbled as a shy, un-co-ordinated eight-year-old into the studio- that we knew how the other's body moved as well as our own. Romance didn't come into it- and even less so now that I'd met a certain Benedict- it was just an extremely good friendship. We knew each other; we knew how to work the crowd. It was probably the only occasion I didn't mind being the centre of attention for.

"Hi." James grinned at the assembled crowd, who looked back at us. "I hope Liv hasn't been feeding you false information about how good we are. We're not good; just extremely enthusiastic, so feel free to step back in case any shoes fly off during the performance."

The crowd tittered; Deano, who wasn't anywhere near Liv, turned to the stereo which had been plonked in the corner of the barn. The music started- a two-bar intro of a routine we'd done repeatedly in the studio- and I took up position. This one was a Cha-Cha-Cha, fast and flirty: I loved it.

Let's start. Step back, forwards, hip swing, straight arms...

_Four-and-one, two, three..._

Already the crowd was fading from my vision- so was everything except for the darkness, James, the dancefloor, and the music.

Forward basic, circle away, circle together...

_One, two, three..._

My heart lightened as the dance picked up pace; the moves were as natural to me as breathing and we flowed through them like water.

Sidewalk, Butterfly position, hand to hand...

_Four-and-one, two..._

Cucaracha!

A smile crept its way onto my face; after a second I realised that I was laughing, and James grinned back at me intimately; this dance was only for the two of us.

I swept through the moves like a dream, and it was possibly the best I'd ever danced, here in this barn to the tune of an old stereo on Bonfire Night. When the dance started slowing to a close, James raised an eyebrow and mouthed 'Lift?'

Yes! It wasn't Cha-Cha-Cha, but who cared? I leapt forwards; James caught me and swept me upwards above his head in one smooth movement. I stretched my arms and closed my eyes.

I was flying, free, weightless.

Then I rolled sideways and he clasped me to his torso, leaving enough room for me to sweep my arms across gracefully...

The music ended.

I hung there for a moment, entirely suspended by James, entirely in my own bubble.

Then the applause started, the whistling, the whoops, and my feet found the floor again. Grinning and laughing uncontrollably, I bowed and twirled for everyone, giddy on applause and adrenaline and success. Had Will seen me? Had he come? I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn't care. Here was my niche; here I was unbeatable and free.

After about five minutes beating down requests for an encore, I stumbled out into the night of the outside just as the first firework blossomed against the night sky. I breathed out happily, feeling completely at peace with the world, with myself.

Wait.

What was that?

Out of the darkness, a struggling mass emerged in the corner of the field, black against the blacker night sky. I squinted, trying to see what was happening, to hear beyond the bangs and pops of the fireworks. Was this a drunken brawl? Somehow, I didn't think so. Not with four-plus Savants in the crowd, two of whom were involved in a can-of-worms kinda mission.

I sprinted forwards, heels clicking pitifully against the stone, just in time to see a shape tear itself away from the group as another collapsed to the grass with a solid, horrible _thump_. The thrill of the dance vanished; instead, my heart kicked into double-time again for an entirely different reason.

"STOP!" I knew that voice. God, it was Will. I tore my heels off and redoubled my speed, flying over the ground to where the struggle had taken place. What was happening? What was _happening? _

_Will, what's happened?_

"Mara..." He said just as I reached them. He and Fred were standing on the grass, both looking stunned and pale against the golden bonfire light. "Mara, I'm sorry..."  
"_Tell me!" _I demanded, fear congealing at the pit of my stomach.

And then I saw him, lying on the ground, pale and still. Pale and still as Penny had been.

I felt as though I'd been sucker-punched.

I couldn't find enough air; gasped, couldn't breathe. My knees jellified; Will caught me as I toppled sideways.

"_Tommy..." _

I reached out against my will, felt his forehead. He was feverish; unconscious. He was ill.

My brother. My Tom.

"It's all my fault..." Fred whispered, staring at his brother's body.

Will cradled me close; I didn't resist. I couldn't.

Then I saw the figure retreating over the field, sprinting flat-out away from the amber bonfire light. It was his fault; he'd done this! I had to get him; I had to make him take it back, cure him- there had to be a way! There had to be...I couldn't imagine anything else.

"Who's that guy?"

Fred's eyes widened. Will tightened his hold on me. "No, Mara..."

"Let go of me, Will." I told him, deceptively calm.

"No..."

I snapped. "_Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!" _Wildly, desperately, I drove an elbow into his stomach; snapped my head up and cracked his skull back.

Surprised, he let go...

And I was off.


	13. Forest Encounters

I sprinted barefoot through the sodden grass, fronds whipping at my legs, conscious of nothing but the man in front of me and my own burning hatred. I couldn't stop, couldn't look back; every time I faltered, the vision of my brother lying helpless on the grass seared against my eyelids.

And it was _that _man's fault, and he was going to pay.

_That time when I broke my arm, and he gave me ice-cream to distract me whilst Fred called the ambulance..._

Distantly I was aware of pounding feet behind me; it was distant, one step removed. I knew it was Will- knew it with every bone in my body- but couldn't think beyond the retreating figure running away ahead of me.

_When he unexpectedly turned up to take me home from my last day ever at school and took me to a last-minute West End musical..._

_Mara!_

The light from the Bonfire faded to a distant amber glow as my feet stomped out a two-time rhythm on the ground, breathing whooshing in and out raggedly like waves on the beach. The man veered sideways, into a dark mass that had to be woodland. I spotted the fence just in time, cleared it in one...and was off again.

_All of those quiet, shared moments you get when spending life together- jokes, card games, sword fights with forks and toothbrushes instead of steel..._

_Mara! Speak to me!_

_Sod the hell off! _

The dark trees swallowed me whole, and I was standing in blackness, leaves prickling against my feet. I stuttered to a stop; chances were that this guy was a Savant, but I had one thing he didn't.

I took a deep breath- a two second preparation, I wasn't really going for careful- and then dropped all the barriers I held around my power.

I wasn't really prepared for the energy that flooded my limbs. It rushed around my body like liquid fire, setting every sense alight with potential, with magic. It was the ultimate power cocktail, and I was going to use every last bit of it.

Every nerve vibrating, I took off again through the forest. I could hear the guy's footfalls in the distance in the dead silence; it was easy to track him. As I passed the trees, branches fell to the floor with solid _thunk_s, bushes shredded themselves, pebbles cracked like gunshots in the silence. My power was more dangerous the angrier I got, and right now I was beyond livid.

With all of the forest tearing itself apart as I ran, I guess that it was only natural that the man I was following slowed, putting both hands over his head as he tried to protect himself. I attempted to rein myself in, but couldn't manage to find the willpower. No restraints, no boundaries. Liberation coursed through my veins like potent wine- I didn't want to give that up just yet.

What I did do, though, was (surprise, surprise) topple my attackee to the ground with a flying rugby tackle that even the most seasoned professional would have been proud of. With my hands around his torso and all of my body weight behind the fall, he didn't stand a chance.

As soon as he hit the ground, he attempted to get up again, but I used his momentum to flip him over, and he landed on his back. Then I sat on him. Ha!

He groaned, and I leaned close enough to realise that thick blood was oozing from his nose. My stomach flipped over with queasiness and regret, but I tried to ignore it. The last thing I needed was to pass out. Who was he?  
On closer inspection, that question was answered. Lying on the ground was the very same bald, ugly dude that had accosted us in our restaurant. He had- somehow- nicked the papers that I'd worked so hard to get...oh yeah, the one who could control us with a single word.

It's a small world, isn't it?

"If you say anything to control me, I'll knock you out." I hissed into his face.

His bullet-grey eyes turned as round as saucers, taking in the carnage behind me. "What are you?" He gasped out.

"I said, shut up!" Another branch thunked to the floor next to me, and he flinched. I suddenly felt awful, but willed myself to press on before I lost my nerve. Telepathic speech was probably better for this kind of thing.

_What did you do to my brother? _I jammed my hand over his mouth so he wouldn't be tempted to answer that way, and glared. Behind me, the footsteps were getting closer.

He shook his head. What?

_Tell me! What's the antidote?_

_There...there isn't one. _His voice, dead and cold, slithered into my brain, leaving the worst possible slug's trail message behind.

"You're lying!" I cried out, panic sinking past my stomach and lodging firmly somewhere in my gut. "There has to be one? What did you do to him?"

_I...didn't._

"I...don't understand..."

"Mara! Don't listen to a word he says!" Fred's panicked voice shouted out. "Where is he?"

I opened my mouth- I didn't know what for- but before I could say anything else, strong arms were pulling me away from the man's prone body. I gasped in shock as Will enfolded me firmly against his broad chest, hugging me tightly to him.

"God, Mara..."

I breathed in his earthy-minty-cologney scent as deeply as a drowning man coming up for air, abandoning all pride-and strength- and resting my head against his shoulder. Suddenly I became aware of the night around me, of something other than my victim. My power was still running rampant... I tried to pull it in, halt it...and failed. I couldn't control it!

"Will, I can't stop my power!" I cried out, panic overtaking anger with rally-car speed.

"Shhh...of course you can."

"No, I really can't!"

"Calm down. Shh..." Gently, he started rocking me backwards and forwards, setting up a soothing rhythm, calming me, right there in the middle of that active war zone. His calm, solid strength comforted me, and slowly, slowly, slowly, my heartbeat returned to normal, my fury dissipated, and, gradually, the destruction around me stopped. I was trembling all over, but my power was back under control- where it firmly belonged, where it should never have been let out from.

I took several deep breaths, and then raised my eyes hesitantly, to see him looking right back at me. I stood on tiptoes and kissed him passionately, desperately, savouring every inch of him. He kissed me back just as frantically, hands sliding to the bottom of my spine and the back of my neck, linking me up to him. I felt my heartbeat rocket up again- but this time for all of the right reasons. I was grounded again; sane.

Then I took a deep breath and tried to step backwards- 'tried' being the operative word, as my legs didn't seem to want to obey me.

This was ridiculous! I gritted my teeth, tried again- and this time, everything went black.

* * *

I was floating in a sea of warmth, blackness...sleepiness weighing down every limb.

"Mara?"

Aaah...bliss!

"Wake up!"

No. Go away! Couldn't this pest _see_ that they were disturbing quality beauty sleep? (Not that I needed it. Heh!)

"If you don't open your eyes I'll stick my tongue in your ear."

Ugh. Hang on- _what_?!

I struggled up to the surface of awakeness and, with an effort, flicked my eyes open...to find Will's face a bare inch from my own.

"Bloody hell!" I swore, backpedalling so fast that I almost bumped heads with him. I glared at him; he twinkled back.

"How's that for a wake-up call?"

"Effective as a trumpet in the ear. Don't you _ever_ stick your tongue in my ear!" I shoved both hands over the offending organs and pushed myself up on the bed, every sign of sleepiness surrendering to the buzzing of shock- and Will. I levered myself away until our bodies weren't touching, and looked around. "Where am I?"

When it registered, the amount of colour in the-fairly small- room was astounding. It was like an explosion in a paint factory, and my eyes goggled, then started to ache. The walls were painted deep blue; the ceiling, bizarrely, sunset orange. A gigantic world map was pasted to the wall next to the bed- except that you couldn't see much of it anymore due to the photos, letters and postcards which were plastered all over it at strategic locations. A bookcase was slotted between the door and the bed, and it exploded with foreign artefacts- chunks of stone, beads, shrivelled flowers, carvings, coins...you name it. A desk was shoved into the last quarter of the room, and that was covered with papers and- from what I could see- brightly coloured doodles. In all, it looked like an army HQ- the hippie version. Wow. I think that was my question answered in a record-breaking two seconds.

"It's mine."

"It's...uh...bright." I looked down at the duvet. Surprise, surprise- even that was eye-watering, as it seemed to be made out of an Indian sari-type fabric, embroidered with little mirrors.

"I should explain." He grinned. "I collect stuff on my travels. This is one of my bases. Mom keeps trying declutter my room in Wrickenwridge, so I just, uh, shift it to another room. She doesn't mind...let me rephrase. She doesn't know."

Was it themed? I wondered randomly. A collection this big should surely have some kind of Dewey Decimal System...or Will Recognition System. I'd love to have travelled enough to have a hoard as big as this...speaking of that, should I feel embarrassed that I was in his room? No, I decided. He'd put me there; I'd had no say in it.

"Is this a collection of everywhere you've been in the world, then?" I couldn't stop staring around the room, trying to pick out individual items in the mass of colour.

"Yup. I keep track on my map."

I stared at it. Multiple Wills stared back at me. Will on camel, Will in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Will in a rainforest, Will holding a piranha by the tail...the piranha holding Will by the mouth.

"It's fair to say you've travelled, then. Who took the photos?"

"Various friends who were stupid enough to accompany me on the first trip." He grinned. "After the incident in the Alps, I had fewer volunteers."

"What happened in the Alps?"

"Rockslide." He shrugged. "Occupational hazard, I guess. I was stuck on a narrow ledge above a ravine for about a day before I made a leap of faith and abseiled down the ravine with my spare, sadly half-frayed rope. Actually, faith and insanity both had an about equal say in it."

"Crikey. I can't believe you survived that."

"Sometimes I can't, either." He grinned. "The rope snapped halfway down; I fell about a hundred feet into the lake at the bottom. Hurt like hell."

"I bet." I scanned the map for Alpine pictures; I only found one, of a small chocolate-box village. Talking of injuries...

"What's happened to Tom?" The question popped out of my mouth before I had time to process anything else, panic and memory tumbling hard on its heels. Why had I been spending all this time chatting aimlessly? What had happened to my brother? Will held up a hand; I reached forwards and caught it with my own, trying to force down the fear. His fingers traced absent little patterns of fire over my skin, as I waited, incandescent with impatience.

"He's fine. Well. I rang my brothers- Xav swung round and popped him off to hospital. Ta-da! He's in a fairly stable condition, so don't worry. We can visit him later, if you like. I, meanwhile, was running around the country carrying a dead weight- also known as Mara Cooper, bulldozer extraordinaire."

"Thank you for that compliment." I leaned my forehead against his shoulder, embarrassed. The events in the forest were beginning to seem distant, as though they'd been a film that I'd watched, but not actually taken part in.

"You're welcome, seeing as the forest was bark chippings by the time you calmed down. You drained yourself big time."

"It was _not!_"

"Or at least firewood." I smacked him on the arm with my free hand, and he winced dramatically. "Hey, calm down! I'm serious; you really trashed that place! The tree-huggers are gonna be after you. If it wasn't for the fact that I didn't like him, I would have sent that bloke you attacked flowers."

Talking about that...I thought about the man I'd accosted in the forest, but pushed the thought away quickly. For now, I didn't want to relive what he had told me.

"How did you find me, then?"

"Using my inbuilt threat radar." He tapped his forehead. "I went the place where I felt most unsafe- where you were, obviously. It didn't feel right- I'm starting to think you're dangerous for my mental as well as physical health."

"Death by over daredevilism." I grinned, half ashamed and half impressed. "I didn't...well, I wasn't really thinking. I didn't mean to tackle that guy, it just...happened."

"Woah."

"Wild thing."

"You make my heart sing?"

"Yep. You got it." He smiled, and leaned closer, making my heart stutter embarrassingly. I could count every freckle on his sun-kissed cheeks..."You make everything groovy!"

And then he kissed me, and, I'm embarrassed to say, I forgot all else.

Actually, I'm not embarrassed. I was exhilarated. Because kissing Will was like being outside in a thunderstorm and not wanting to go inside where it would be warm and safe. He held me close to him, arms cradling my waist as though I was precious, gold, silver, wanted, but injecting so much passion into his kiss that I felt myself burning up from the inside out, and wanting more, more. It was better than power; it was more potent, purer, less destructive, more invigorating. I didn't know it could be like this- with anybody, and clutched him closer. He sure as hell knew what he was doing.

A loud knock sounded on the door and we jumped apart.

Xav stuck his head around the door and grinned in a way that suggested he knew _exactly _what we'd been doing. "Heya. Don't break the furniture, will ya?"

I was suddenly aware of my flushed cheeks, and blushed even more.

A pillow threw itself across the room at him; he stopped it with a cool telekinetic counter move and grinned even more. "Mom says any time you're ready. She says that she knows you two are working on the mission, but she wants everyone to be clued up about it."

"Oh." I didn't have a game plan for this said mission. I hadn't really thought beyond the 'break into top-secret impossibly high security base in Calais' bit. "Er- ok."

"See you in a min." Xav's head disappeared; the door shut. I looked suspiciously at Will; he shook his head in confusion.

"Hey, I haven't said anything!"  
"You are a very secretive person, you know that?"

"Only 'cos you want me to be." Hmmm. Probably true. I wrinkled my nose; he tweaked it and smiled. "Don't stress, gorgeous. It keeps me grounded. I probably won't fly away so often now I have someone else to worry about."

_If _you have someone else to do it with. The thought popped into my head like an unwanted piece of chewing gum to the bottom of a shoe. I tried to scrape it away mentally. Thoughts like those were generally bad for my self-esteem.

"Let's go and face the music, then." I stood up with a sigh; the game plan would have to be a flash-of-inspiration thing. Will raised both eyebrows.

"Can't you-"

"No." Although distraction would be very nice right now! I made for the door at top speed, opening into the same corridor that I had fled from about a week ago. I was visiting this place far more than necessary- and waking up unconscious and trying to escape seemed to be the accepted practise here. Well, not now.

Hand in hand with Will, I made my way to the kitchen, where loud voices were issuing- the loudest of which was, of course, Karla's. I swallowed down my nerves and made my way in; the entire kitchen turned to look at us as we entered.

Did I mention that the world and its mother appeared to be there as well?

"Mara!" Saul said easily. "We seem to be making a habit of this."

I smiled. "Hopefully I won't run out this time."  
"Mara! Darling!" Karla. "I'm so sorry about last time-I really didn't mean it, you know. It just pops out whenever I least expect it."

"It's fine." I told her- and, suddenly, it was. "Don't worry about it."

"We have a map of the compound." One of the older-looking Benedicts told me. His bearing and authority screamed 'law enforcement' at me and he looked, frankly, formidable. Said map was spread all across the table, and official-looking drawing pins were stabbed in it in mysterious patterns. "I thought you could tell us what you and Will were planning to do. Because even though it's easier to get into somewhere with two people, its way easier to get people out with about ten."

"I don't really want to hurt anybody..."

Another one rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. We're all in the Net; you are too. We might not even be needed. Oh. Hang on! I didn't introduce myself. Trace, at your service." He grinned, and the lines around his face softened.

I made the proper noises as the rest of the table followed. I guessed by the letters of their names that they were alphabetically named. Which made Will...in the middle, if my mental maths was correct. Fourth oldest/youngest.

_Got any ideas? _I asked Will mentally. I noticed that although people must have noticed our clasped hands, they weren't making any mention of it. Maybe it wasn't polite in American families. I had no idea.

_Nope. You're on your own, Cooper._

_Thanks for that vote of confidence. _

I was in a kitchen full of seasoned professionals, also known as eight men and a woman, all of whom were involved in the Net. All of whom had been on missions.

I could hold my own with any of them.

I took a deep breath, and started talking.


	14. Revelations and the Eurostar

"Hey, Tom. Sorry I couldn't make it earlier."

The hospital corridors were quiet, except for the occasional beeping of heart monitors and rattling of trolleys. It wasn't the peaceful kind; it was the deathbed-hush sort instead, which wasn't exactly comforting.

My brother was lying on the mattress in front of me, auburn hair brushed back from his forehead and skin clammed over with a light sheen of sweat. I swallowed hard, and took the seat next to him, trying to ignore the drips feeding into of his body, pumping who-knew-what around his system Looking at him, I was gripped by the urge just to get up, to run away, to not look back, to stand in the sea until my body screamed with cold and I could forget everything. Instead, I took his hand. It felt awkward beyond belief- which just made it worse.

"I didn't bring you any flowers, because I know you'd prefer rosemary or cinnamon instead." I bit my lip, watching for any sort of response, hoping, hoping that maybe my voice would wake him up. "You always did prefer cooking to any sort of gardening."

The only gardening he did was slicing up herbs.

"I...I've just finished making the plans with the rest of the Benedicts. They took ages, Tommy. Going over _every last detail, _to make sure it's all perfect. You know me- I can't stand any of that stuff." I allowed myself a smile, imagining my brother smiling back at me. "I was ready to punch the wall by the end. And I thought that only politicians could talk like that. I'm getting better, though. I didn't smash anything...that's probably Will. He's good at stopping me from doing that. You'd like him, I think, if you got to know him better. He's very outdoorsy, does some seriously crazy stuff. You know he abseiled from a cliff with only half a rope? I think you'd laugh at some of the stories he'd tell..."

Or maybe not. Guilt weighed my chest down like a sack full of rocks, making it hard to swallow.

"I feel so bad, Tom. It's...all my fault that you're like this." God, it was somehow worse saying things aloud than thinking them. But I had to say it- had to apologise, because it _was _my fault. It was.

"If we hadn't conducted the investigation...or hadn't been so blunt. I...should've kept my eyes open; it was my own stupid fault! But I didn't think it would happen to you, just me...and then I lost my head completely."

Angrily, I brushed away the tears that had sneaked down my cheeks. "Do you remember when we were little, and I was in primary? That girl- what was her name? Georgia, I think- hit you- I don't remember why, even. But I went crazy! I kicked and bit her, until you pulled me off. You were so disappointed in me...I swore I'd never do it again. But I _did. _I did. I need someone to pull me back... because I really went for that guy..."

Some spots of wet appeared on the bedsheets, and I swiped at my eyes again.

"It was awful. I feel so bad...but you've always...looked after me. Don't leave me, Tom...I couldn't bear it."

The lump in my throat was hurting, and I clenched my fists tight, letting fingernails cut into skin. "And I don't care what...what that man said. There _has to be a cure. _There _is a cure._ I'm going to find it, and I'm going to fix you. I promise. I really do."

But...I hadn't really made much sense of my attackee's talk anyway. He'd shaken his head when I asked him questions, trying to deny that he'd done anything. Yeah right. But maybe he'd mistaken my question about whether there was an antidote or not. I prayed that he had.

"Anyway...the sooner we go to Calais, the sooner I get you fixed. We're leaving tomorrow morning. Eurostar. Nice, eh? I'm actually going to France again! Hope it'll turn out better than last time...at least I have my Soulfinder with me this time..."

"_What." _

I almost jumped out of my skin right then and there. As it was, cracks ran up the vase next to Tom's bedside, and I toppled off the chair I'd been sitting on. Heart pounding, I looked through streaks of auburn into my brother's face. Shell-shocked didn't even describe it...though let's just say that he looked worse than the invalid himself. Cold prickles of dread needled my skin.

"Fred, I..."

"You'd better be joking." He said flatly. I scrambled up from my position on the floor, dragging the chair up too for support. Finally, then. The pretence was over. I wished it had never even started, but dreaded the outcome.

"No. I'm sorry. Fred..."

"_Don't." _He said jerkily. "_Don't..._say that. No..."

"Yes. I'm...I didn't mean for it to happen." I reached out a hand; he recoiled, and I swallowed back a fresh bout of tears. "It's not that...I didn't want to hurt you. Fred..."

"Not _hurt _me? Well, that's alright then." He leaned against the wall. "Who...should I even ask?"  
"It's Will Benedict. You know, my mission partner." I bit my lip. "He's not that bad. Really..."

"Of course not..."

Without any warning, he swivelled and slammed his fist into the wall. I almost screamed as blood flowered across his knuckles and left poppy imprints across the plaster. "Fred!"  
"That makes it alright, does it?" He hissed at me. His words were snake venom, poison in my ears. "It makes it alright, that you get to have a happy ending, and not me? Why not? After all, you and Tom got everything else I had, didn't you? My money, my time, care...why did Helene _die- _ all for you to ride off into the sunset with your man? Tell me!"

"It's not like that!" I cried. "Why did Helene die? I can't say...but at least you don't have to give me any more money, time or care! I've been through just as much as you! Why _don't _I get a happy ending with the one healthy person who actually cares about me? I can't undo Soulfinderism, Fred...God knows I tried. D'you want me to kill Will, so we can live together in misery? _You _tell me that, Alfred!" My temper was rising to match his now; we both stood, mutually glaring, eyes slitted with anger.

Fred held my gaze for about two seconds, and then dropped it. Misery and anger flashed across his face, before his eyes screwed up like they always did when he was trying not to cry. For a second, we both remembered the time after Helene had died...the screaming in the night. My gunshot wound throbbed once, viciously.

"I'm sorry, Mara." He said eventually, heaving a deep breath. Then- as though that had cost him everything he'd had to give- he vanished in front of my eyes. I just stood there, chest heaving, watching empty space.

I'd finally told Fred; I'd finally stood up to Fred.

From down the corridor there came a long, drawn-out moan, like that of a tortured, hopeless animal.

It was a long time before I could bring myself to leave Tom's bedside. I'm not sure how long I stood

there, heaving silent tears. I don't think I'd ever felt so alone. I needed comfort; familiarity. I needed the sea, if not the sea, Will.

Leaving, I planted a soft kiss on my brother's cheek, and tucked the rosemary I'd brought next to his cheek. When he woke up, he'd be able to smell it. Then I gulped, turned my back, and left the same way my brother had.

As I left, I checked Penny's room, but it was empty. That meant he'd either gone one of two ways...I hoped that he was still in the land of the living. If so, it gave me some hope for Tom.

Either way, this journey would resolve things. Even if I didn't come back, though, I'd have stopped the virus.

Failure wasn't an option.

* * *

"Mara! Over here!"

I pivoted on my heel as the voice sounded in the crowded station, searching faces, looking for the voice...

"Here!" Sky's face loomed out of the mass, face pink from jumping up and down in an effort to be seen. Behind her, the Eurostar gleamed silver. "Come on!"

It was ten to eleven, and I was late for my train. I sprinted through the packed platform, shoving people aside left, right, and forwards. When they saw my face, they backed away sharpish. Not surprising- I'd had minimal sleep my strangely empty house, and sopping hair probably added to the madwoman effect.

"Thank god!" Sky exclaimed, just as I reached her, panting. "We thought you weren't going to make it. Now I can tell the others."

All the Benedicts had insisted on coming with us to France- as backups, Saul had insisted. They wouldn't be going on this train-they were catching a later one, to throw off suspicion, I think- but they'd be waiting on the sidelines in case anything happened- anything which was massive cock-up related.

"Cool." I told her, and dived inside the train, hauling my luggage on board and heaving a deep breath of pain (I had a killer stitch) and relief. Thank all the assorted gods that may or may not have been listening; I'd made it. France, here I came!

Actually, disappointingly, when I looked through the sliding door, the Eurostar didn't look any different from any other trains I'd been in. It was going to take me to France, for heaven's sake! It was international travel; shouldn't there at least be coffee tables and TVs in the back of the headrests? Sadly, no. Without any distractions, I was going to have to tackle my French essay on the way, which I'd been sadly neglecting so far.

"Wow, you're drenched!"

Well, I'll amend the 'no distractions' bit. Will had managed to sneak up on me, and had slipped an arm around my waist without my noticing. I inhaled mint and cologne, but didn't lean into him- my hair was still dripping. "Is it raining outside?"

"Er, no." The truth was in the reason that I'd been late- namely, that I'd driven to the seaside, and stood in the swell for about an hour before screwing up the courage to get on the train. My legs were still numb; I hadn't changed my clothes either. Thank god for suitcases is all I can say.

"Bye!" I turned to see Sky, now joined by Zed, Karla, Saul and Phoenix, waving outside the train. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

"See you then." I grinned.

"Hang on..." Karla's eyes were swivelling from Will's arm (which was still around my waist) to his face, to mine, then back. "Hang on..._Will Benedict, _I don't think you've told us everything about this young lady!"  
I checked my watch hastily. The forces of motherhood were indeed astute...but the train was due to leave at any minute...

Will flushed a dull scarlet. "Oh yeah. I, erm, forgot. She's my Soulfinder. See you in France, Mom! Bye!"

And with impeccable timing, the doors hissed shut on their gobsmacked faces. Karla swelled like a hot air balloon, vibrating with thwarted motherliness, but with a lurching bump, the train jerked into motion, and their faces gradually disappeared from view, to be swallowed up by concrete.

"Good timing." I breathed out with relief. "I thought she was going to stop the train and climb on board to tell you off!"

"Me too." Will said sheepishly. He winced; I guessed that Karla was giving him a telepathic tongue-lashing. I didn't envy him one little bit.

"Well, you've escaped Karla. All you've got to face now is completing this mission." I told him. "You won't be forced to work with me then."

Hurt flashed across his face. "You don't want to work with me?"

"I'd rather not face sudden death on a regular basis." I smiled and bit my lip, watching the station flash away to winter-grey houses. "What did you think I was going to say?"

"As ever, I didn't really know." He teased, leaning close enough for me to feel his breath on my face. "And by the way, are you ever going to teach me how to dance?"

"On a beach in New Zealand, maybe. I don't want to take any chances; you might end up better than me!"

"You think so?"

"I'd rather not have any competition."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow in a way that made my heartbeat kick up a gear. I was vividly reminded of that day on the street when I had _almost _kissed him- before we'd been attacked. "I can beat you any day. My concentration is razor-sharp."

Was it? I'd give him something to think about, then.

Feeling rather stupid- but determined- I leaned in even closer, and looped one hand around his neck. The other I brushed down his face. I heard his breathing speed up with satisfaction, and no small bit of desire...

As he leaned in, I stepped back and waved his wallet in front of his face, creating a black leather wall between us. "Razor sharp? You just got pickpocketed by a girl!"

"You little minx!"

"Admit it; I'm better than you."

"Okay...but my dignity's going to cost you." He raised one eyebrow.

"How much?"

"Oh, I don't know...a kiss here?" He brushed my jawbone with his lips. I sucked in a breath. "Or perhaps...here?" Throat. "Or..."

The train lurched in a stern kind of way; I got the hint.

"I'm gonna go get changed! No, wait-you haven't admitted anything yet."

"Come on, Cooper! Fine. You are the best pickpocket in this carriage."

"Not quite."

"In the world...apart from me, of course." He waved my train ticket in front of my eyes. I goggled at him. He'd gotten me back!

That just wasn't fair.

* * *

Approximately four hours later saw me in a Calais hotel, trying to make sense of the enormity of the task ahead of me. In about twelve hours, we'd be breaking into a high-tech, possibly guarded, definitely Savant-unfriendly base. Once there, we were supposed to destroy this brother-stealing virus they were brewing there and not get caught. Personally, I wasn't rating our chances too highly. In fact, if I was a gambler, I'd be betting for the opposite team.

Oh, good. I always liked confidence-boosting pep talks.

I glanced around my room- it was the generic model. Soap, kettle, teabags (despite the fact that nobody I knew in France could make a decent cup of tea) and a small ensuite. My clothes were already settling in nicely, as they'd managed to spread themselves around the room, draping themselves in odd places like the towel rack and the desk.

I knew myself well enough to figure that I wasn't going to get any sleep here.

Was Will still awake? I probably shouldn't...to hell with that. I might be dead tomorrow. At least I wasn't in my pyjamas.

Quietly, I went across the corridor to his room, and knocked, knuckles light on the wood. To my surprise, it opened almost immediately to reveal my knight in the not-so-shining armour of a t-shirt and jogging bottoms. Well, it was ten o'clock.

"Mara?"

"Hey." I offered a sheepish smile. "I...uh...didn't think I was going to get too much sleep tonight. Unless...you're, um, busy..."

"What? No, of course not." He held the door open wide enough for me to step in and see that his almost identical room was in a similar state of disarray.  
Awkwardly, I perched on the desk chair.

"I don't think I'll be getting too much sleep tonight, either." He admitted. "Life and death situations tend to do that."  
"It's always the same for me...every mission I go on, I can't relax."

"_Every _mission?" He plonked himself down on the bed and stared at me curiously. "How many missions have you been on?"

"About, erm, six? Most of them small-scale, all of them with Fred or Tom."

"_Six_?"

"Yeah. Except I was a bit of a liability...blowing up things, you know. I, erm, the last time I went out, before I found you, I mean, we were in an old safe house. Tom was there, and then we got found out. I panicked and smashed the supports; the whole thing nearly came down on top of us." I grimaced ruefully. "This mission was Dom's way of saying he trusted me not to screw up again."

"Wow. You're a bit of a firecracker, eh?"

"Not by choice!" I said, firing up. "If I could, I wish that I wasn't this...this dangerous. I'd much rather have some ability like yours- I can't even go into a theatre without smashing a lightbulb when the play gets exciting!"

"Cool it, Cooper. I'm not saying anything. Don't worry, I'll only take you to operas. That way nobody will notice when you smash glass!"

"Thanks." I smiled. "I really think I lucked out with you."

"I think so too." He grinned back in a way that made my stomach flip. "Who else would be ready to tackle fire and flame all in the name of justice? You amaze me."

"Shut up!"

"It's true." He said intently. "You've gone through so much, but you still have such a clear sense of right and wrong...you're prepared to lay down everything for the people you love, and not care about yourself. You're single-minded, but blunt about it. You keep me grounded, but I never know what to expect from you. I think that you're good for me; you stop me flying away too much. All that travelling...I was always searching for the next thrill. I don't need that any more; you help me face reality."

My face was on fire with a mixture of embarassment and gratitude. I'd always thought that I relied on Will, not the other way around. I hadn't been counting on that speech, but not I realised that I'd needed it. But I didn't think I could make one back...word wizardry wasn't exactly my forte.

"Well, er...thanks. I think you're good for me, too." He was, thinking about it. I closed my eyes and thought about it. He let me know I was loved; he stopped me before I caused too much harm- either to myself or others. Wasn't that nice?

"Mara? You okay?" I looked at him- with difficulty, seeing as my eyelids were practically glueing themselves together. I opened my mouth to reply, but a yawn slipped out instead. Apparently I was more tired than I'd realised.  
Talk about humiliating.

"Come here." Will got up, scooped me off my half-fallen position on the chair and carried me to the bed. "I'm not carrying you all the way to your room."

"Cheeky." I half-yawned.

"Sieze the moment." He chuckled. "I'm just pleased it's a double bed."

He flumped down next to me and put an arm around my waist. I didn't fight it- sleep was creeping up on me.

"I love you."

Did he say something? Strange.

Well, I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep, but now, here...

I was out like a light.


	15. Breaking In

When I woke up, the room was dark. That was the first thing I registered.

The second was that I wasn't alone.

Oh god. I froze, memory flooding back to my sleep-fogged brain. Very, _very, _slowly, I turned my head. Will was sleeping right next to me, his face literally buried in my hair. We could literally have fit on a single bed instead of a double-our bodies fit together like a jigsaw, and his arm was looped over my waist.

Once I was sure that I wasn't going to scream- and had double-checked that we had only gone to sleep and nothing else-I relaxed slightly. Actually, it was quite comfortable. It felt right- I'd slept like a log, and hadn't had a single nightmare. Now that was a first. And it might be a last...today was the day of the mission.

I bit my lip, and took the chance to watch his sleeping face, telling myself it might be the last one I got. Asleep, his face was completely innocent of any kind of mischief, wit, humour...warmth. No, that wasn't true. A small half-smile curled across his face, framed by his black mop. He looked innocent...happy...I could see the little boy that he had once been.

Unconsciously, I reached over and brushed my fingers over his cheekbone, where the bruise he'd gotten in the Institute had flowered and died over the weeks I'd known him. He stirred sleepily, and a string of mumbled words tumbled out of his mouth. My heart swelled; it was only now that I realised I couldn't imagine a life without him.

That rang a bell...where had I heard something similar? The last thing he'd said to me...I frowned...I'd been half asleep..._I love you. _

No? No! _No! _

What? Had I misheard? Was I imagining it? Somehow, I didn't think so...oh my god! Love! _Love?! _He couldn't mean it...nobody did. But what if he did? Did I love him? Love was commitment, love was hurt...what if he fell out of love with me?

I couldn't sit still any longer.

I spun and propelled myself out of bed, sprawling into the carpet. I noted- with considerable relief- that I was still in my day clothes. Will's mumbling morphed into complete silence. Was he asleep?

I jumped up- and met his eyes square on. Oh.

"Er. Morning!" I said, a little too brightly.

"Hey."

Not wanting to look into his eyes, I cast around for the clock. It was almost exactly half six- not surprisingly. I had a very efficient body clock, thanks to working in the restaurant. In Britain it was half five. So...due to the mission plans, we'd be penetrating the centre as early as possible to find minimal staff, but after the (presumably tight) night security. We were due to get in for about half past seven...that gave us about an hour. Eeek.

"Mara..."

"Guess I'd better...get ready. Yeah...well. See you in twenty!" I had just enough presence of mind to snatch my room key, before beating a frantic retreat to my room. I didn't need to look behind me to know that he was confused- I was feeling exactly the same way.

I got ready in half that time- a record for any girl. Black leggings and a white shirt for easy movement; a lab coat would go over the top of that once we'd gotten into the base. Nerves were starting to spiral around in the pit of my stomach, stirring up an unwelcome nausea. I did a last check in the mirror before leaving. My face was getting on for white, making my eyes stand out like blue-green whirlpools, and my hair seem like a nest of flames rather than its usual red-brown. As I watched, a crack snaked up the mirror. Oh great. I'd looked into the mirror, and it had broken.

_Mara? You ready? _That was Will, not sounding anxious at all. Maybe he was putting it on...but I hoped not. It'd be nice to have a calm touchstone on this- maybe it'd control my volatile power.

_Yeah. Let's get this over and done with._

_That's my girl. _Was I really, though?

I took a last, deep breath, and looked down at the photo in my hand. It was a picture of the three of us- Tom, Fred and me, on a beach in happier times, hair flying every which way in the wind. I glanced at the photo- and slipped it into my pocket, eyes watering suspiciously.

_This is for you, Tom._

Let's go.

* * *

The base wasn't too far away- thank god-but the short walk out in the open was more than enough to give me the serious jitters. Thoughts were pressing in on me from the outside, but I couldn't give any of them enough attention...especially not as the squat, grey building loomed out of the concrete in the icy morning air.

It was well-hidden, I'd give them that. Hidden in plain view, as it were: it looked like a factory in the midst of Calais's industrial section. Picture a grey rectangle with oodles of barbed wire and an electronic keypad to guard it. It was a pretty safe guess that the whole thing was Savant-proof; we'd be using good ol' fashioned normal methods to get in. Once there, the lab coats and Will's ability to sense threats- guards, in this case- should keep us in the clear long enough for us to figure out what was going on. My job was to smash the cases that kept the virus...I was actually going to use my power and do something useful, for once.

Still. We weren't bulletproof...or virus-proof, either.

"You alright, Cooper?"

I jumped, and looked around to see Will glancing sideways at me. The wind sliced at my cheeks like knives. We were hidden in the shadow of another factory- from there it was about a hundred yards of concrete until we got to the perimeter of the anti-Savant base.

I attempted a smile- and failed miserably. "Not really. I'm scared sh-"

"Me too." He looked as surprised as me to hear the words coming out of his mouth. I half stared, half exhaled in surprise. So it wasn't just me that was feeling a teensy bit nervous.

I checked my watch; it was twenty-five past seven.

"We'll be fine." We had to be fine- I wouldn't- _couldn't- _allow anything else.

"Mara...there's something I have to...tell you."

Terror snaked to life in the pit of my stomach. Funny- we were facing potential death, and yet I'd still pick going into a building full of soldiers over having a relationship 'talk'. I had a funny idea of what he was going to say...

"Don't say it!" I yelped, fumbling my words in panic. "Please, don't say it!"

Hurt bloomed to life on his face, and I instantly felt awful. I was becoming rather good at hurting people with my exquisite ear for timing.

"Sorry." I attempted.

"Doesn't matter." He muttered. "C'mon, let's go."

And without further ado, he strode out from behind the buildings and into the sunlight, leaving me to hurry hopelessly behind him, guilt nipping at my heels. We reached the gate with no problems, and Will pulled out a sheet of paper with some oddly-familiar codes hastily scribbled onto it. The source was, unfortunately, the same man that I'd accosted in the woods...it turned out that he was far from unwilling to share his information in return for release the day after tomorrow. He was a shining example of loyalty...I was glad he wasn't working for us.

I watched Will plugging in the numbers- trying to remember where I'd seen them before- until the electronic door suddenly slid back with a screech of metal. Wow. We were in! I looked at him, feeling oddly calm-I suspected it was because I had gone beyond terror. He glanced back, expression open and vulnerable. We were going to enter the lion's den; we might not come out. If I rejected him now, I'd be doing real damage.

I took a deep breath, and slipped my hand inside his.

_Come on, then. It can't be as hard as abseiling down the Alps._

_No, but two people could get hurt this time._

I squeezed his hand. _Fret not. If we get out, I'll buy you coffee cake. If not, I'll chase you to the Pearly Gates and pester you back to the land of the living._

_Deal. _

He smiled slightly, and traced his finger down the length of my jaw. And I'll tell you, that was worth a thousand deaths, if it weren't for the fact that we were going to get out of here alive.

I steeled myself, Will at my side, and, together, we walked in.

The inside of the base was deceptively spacious. I'd been expecting carpets, the same as in the Institute- carpets and mahogany doors and a receptionist. Stupid, really. Here, people were obviously advertising a more hard core brand of evil. The floor was a sterile white- the same as the walls. People walked around as quietly as burglars, slipping in and out of bland pine doors without making a sound. The windows were all blacked out, and everything was lit a harsh white by the neon strips above our heads. Anti-Savant posters screamed at us from the walls, World War Two style- you know, '_They could be listening! Don't advertise facts! Remember your codes!' _That kind of thing. Ridiculous! Like we were some sort of invading army! And everywhere, everywhere, security of one sort or another. I got tense just looking around- CTTV cameras peeped at me from discreet corners, guards patrolled around in tightly-knit bunches, and keypads winked from walls.

In our lab coats, nobody gave us too much hassle, but there was a nasty moment when I _almost _turned and fled as a troop of guards marched down the corridor. Will's restraining hand stopped me, but I caught some suspicious looks from the guards as they walked past.

We tried to avoid them after that, using Will's gift to dodge out of the way whenever they barged past. That was one problem kind-of solved.

Now came the worst bit of the plan:we had to separate...and that was the bit that I wasn't looking forward to. I breathed in deeply, tasting the sterile disinfectant on the air, and squeezed Will's hand once, quickly. The longer this dragged on, the harder it'd be.

_Good luck. _

_You too, Mara. _

He smiled, seemingly carefree- which wrenched at me painfully- and walked down the corridor, taking all of my heart with him. I felt suddenly, horribly alone.

I swiped at the traitorous wetness in my eyes, and tried to focus. The sooner I did my bit, the safer he'd be. My job involved a shiny red alarm button that was currently winking at me from the nearby wall. Well, wasn't that handy? I glanced around to check that nobody was watching me, and then slammed my fist through the plastic.

A loud, blaring siren split the air like a shriek. Doors- similar to the last time I'd done this- burst open and lab coated people poured out like little ants, heading for the main exit. That was one factor dealt with; the guards would be trying to find out what had caused the panic now.

I didn't have much time- where did I have to go? Panic battled with self restraint for control of my insides- most specifically, my stomach.

_Focus, Mara. You've done this before. You can do this again. _I closed my eyes and tried to remember the map of the facility that I'd looked at, only two days ago. Okay. I was at ground level, on the first corridor along from the entrance. The place we needed to get to- according to the source- was a large lab on the second floor...a staircase and some corridors away from us. Me. Away from me. I'd hopefully meet up with Will there.

Better get going, then.

Trying to avoid the eyes of the real scientists, I took the stairs four at a time, sprinting upwards and along the bland little corridors. Almost there. Almost...

"Wait!"

My heart quailed, and plummeted what felt like three storeys all the way to my feet. Unwillingly, I turned around.

Two guards- the bane of my life- stood there, guns cocked. I'll amend that. Guns cocked, and pointing at me. Ah, good. I knew there was something missing from my life.

"Yes?" I kept my voice as polite as possible, with just a little touch of impatience.

"Where are you going, Madam?"

"To retrieve some important files that I've left behind. I trust that you're not opposed to that?" My voice came out thick with a nervous kiwi twang. The men didn't look convinced. Maybe it was the accent.

"What's your name?"

I plucked the first name that came out of my head. Sadly, it was my own. "Research scientist...Mara Cooper."

_What!? What fresh hell? Why, why had my body betrayed me at this point? _

The boss guard, who was sporting a pretty impressive set of pecs, raised both eyebrows. "Where's your office, Cooper?"

I nodded towards my intended destination. "There."

It was only then that I realised it had a keypad.

"I see...well, don't let me stop you." He smiled, and rocked back on his heels. "If you are who you say you are, getting in with the right codes should be a piece of cake, shouldn't it?"

I hesitated. "Go on." He said, waving his gun. His companion- who looked about ten times stupider- sniggered in a way that made me want to punch him. But there was nothing for it.

Slowly, I approached the door. I had no more codes- Will had the sheet of paper. What was I going to do? I couldn't _attack _the guards unless I wanted to have more holes than a Swiss cheese. I'd already been incredibly lucky so far... that was obvious.

As I thought about it, another sequence of numbers swam into my mind...the ones on a sheet dropped by mine and Will's potential assassins that day on the street in Putney.

And then it clicked. _That _was why the codes were so familiar- they were the first two on the sheet! But there was a third one...what was it again? If so, I'd struck gold.

Heart in my mouth, praying that this was the right number, I shakily punched the dials in on the pad.

Stab...stab...stab...

I waited, unable to move...

A green light flicked on. A green light! _Green! _

A smile spread across my face as the door swung open. One glance back at the guards told me that they were looking as though they'd been hit over the head with an anvil. Ha!  
"Any time, gentlemen." I told them, and stepped inside, leaving it ajar for Will.

Just then, all of the lights went out- followed by the siren.

I yelped in surprise as the corridor plunged into pitch blackness. The windows were blacked out; I couldn't see anything- could only hear, and my eardrums were ringing after the assault they'd gotten from the alarm.

"The generator! Quick!"

"Where's my torch?"

"Ow, that was my foot!"

I held my breath, praying that they wouldn't fire blindly. Along the edges of the walls, emergency lighting snaked on- from the backup generator, I guessed. Will had done his job: he'd plunged the building into complete chaos. And then...the _slap, slap _of the guards' footsteps retreating down the corridor.

I released a breath I hadn't realised that I'd been holding. All that I needed to do now was get my torch...

Dim light flickered into being in the room- like the rest of the building, all of the windows were blacked out. So I was relying on the pale blue light...where was everything? Was the virus being brewed in here? I reached for my pocket...

A hand snaked across my throat, cutting off my air supply.

I stiffened for one precious, crucial second-the fingers were closing- then I started to fight like a wild animal, bucking and scratching at the person behind me.

I heard a huff of breath as they inhaled with surprise, but panic was tightening its grip on my brain- I slammed my foot into their instep, wild with terror, and followed that up with a fist to what should be the face...

The barriers around my brain slipped; glass smashed. The person gulped- I punched wildly again, and felt my fist connect with something...

"Wait!" A low, male voice rasped in my ear. Not likely. I drew back my hand again...but then he caught my wrist, letting go of my throat. I staggered forwards, sucking in air like a drowning person, hands reaching up to cup my neck protectively.

Then I pulled my leg back, ready to kick somewhere it _really _hurt.

"Wait!" The rasping tone was a bit clearer now... I frowned.

I knew that voice.

I took a step back, trying to squint through the darkness and see who my attacker was...

Just then, the backup lighting in that room kicked into life...

And I looked up into Fred's face.


	16. Showdown

I froze, an icy chill slipping up my veins. In front of me, Fred- unmistakably Fred- was just visible in the dim half-light, face slack with shock.

I couldn't breathe.

This couldn't be happening.

"Mara..." He half-groaned, and suddenly let go of my wrist. My hand thudded to my side. I couldn't think...couldn't process what was happening. Fred...here? Had we gotten the wrong building? But I knew we hadn't, and that meant only one thing...even I wasn't desperate enough to think he'd come to save me.

Very carefully- very precisely- I took a huge step backwards. My head swam; I was running out of oxygen, and the walls were undulating in a very strange way. I looked into his eyes- the same chocolate brown I'd known for all of my life. A thousand shared childhood moments flickered through my brain- none of this made sense.

"What are you doing here?" He asked me. That unlocked my muscles, and I gulped down a lungful of air, neck throbbing from where his fingers had gripped.

"What am _I _doing here? What are _you _doing here?" My voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away, and I breathed deeply to try and stop myself from passing out. I looked down to see a syringe in his hand, and took another step back.

The world was spinning on its axis; I couldn't even trust my own brother.

"I..." It was the only time I'd ever seen Fred lost for words, and a sudden savage anger kindled inside me.

"No, let me guess. _You _came here because you've been coming here for the last year. To try and make a certain virus. A certain virus that landed your brother in hospital. Am I right?"

"Mara..."

"_Don't. Don't...touch me! _You..." I couldn't think of a word bad enough. The words just kept coming, spilling out of my mouth on autopilot, my body taking over as my brain went into shock.

"Mara..."

"Don't deny it!" I yelled at him. "Go on, say it!"

I looked around the room- a laboratory. Glass bottles lay in rows on shelves, along with a heap of expensive-looking equipment and sterilised benches. Fred was a scientist, I'd known that. But of what, I hadn't known.

I did now.

"Alright! Yes, yes, it was me!" Fred shoved his hand through his hair. "It was me."

"No..." I'd half expected the words, but they still hit me like a sucker punch to the gut.

"What do you want me to say?" He hissed at me.

"That you were innocent! Fred...Fred, you're a Savant yourself! Do they know? Do they know that you're a _stinking hypocrite_?"

My legs were turning to jelly, my vision was blurring fiercely. How had I ended up standing in a French laboratory, yelling at my brother- half of the only family I had left?

Suddenly, my knees gave way, and I collapsed to the floor. Fred leaned forwards, but I pushed at him furiously, pummelling his legs, wanting to hurt him, to hurt him as badly as possible, to make him hurt like I was.

"Why did you do it?" I snarled at up him, hauling myself stubbornly to my feet again and leaning against the wall for support. Furiously, I swiped my hand across my eyes- it came away soaked. "Was it because you knew you couldn't succeed anywhere else? That you weren't good enough for the Savants? Were you pleased to be working against me, against Helene-"

"SHUT UP!" Fred roared. "I did it _because _she died! The Savant Net-" his mouth twisted around the words "-just sent her off, just let her go and..._kill _herself. They sent flowers to her funeral! How is that taking care of your own? My whole life I've been involved in the Net...and they pay me back by killing my Soulfinder! How is that fair? How?"

"What about me? Tom?" I whispered. A horrifying image slotted into place- the scene at the barn dance. The shifty man who'd run off...who, come to think of it, might have been following orders. "Did you..._infect..._Tommy?"

Fred looked away. That was all I needed to know.

"It was meant to be Will Benedict..."

My stomach churned, ice prickled up and down my veins. I was so cold...but I couldn't stop the pieces of the puzzle from slotting into place- his shifty behaviour, the fact he didn't live in our house anymore, the secrecy...

"You..._bastard_. You wanted to destroy my happiness, despite everything, didn't you? Scrap that- your lot _burned _him! Did you know that? You hurt him and then you wanted to _experiment_ on him! You...you're sick. You're worse than an animal. _You _should be the one locked up."

"Mara. Please. Everything I did..."

"Don't even start. I'm your _sister! _You were going to let them _kill me!" _

"No."

"What?" I had found my legs again, and straightened up, the better to look him square in the eyes...except that he didn't seem to want to.

"No, you're not my sister."

Just when I thought I couldn't be any more shocked...

I kept myself from throwing up with difficulty.

"Yes. Yes, I am." Don't lie about this, too.

"No. You know why mum left?"

"She...she found her Soulfinder." I said uncertainly. That was right- that was what I'd heard.

Fred laughed bitterly. "No. She'd found him long before that. Around a year before Tom was born, in fact. Because, obviously, _my _father wasn't her true love."

I could only stare at him. Stare...at the horrible accuracy. Fred's colouring... blonde and brown-eyed compared with mine and Tommy's red-and-blue combination. The fact that Fred was always so touchy about family...the fact that there were no family pictures...my dream. A father whom I'd never met. My dream, which suddenly made so much more sense than I'd first realised.

"No. You're lying!"

"Why would I lie about this?"

Excuses jumped into my mouth, but when I opened it, the words wouldn't come. Fred saw me scramble for words and laughed. And I swear, in that moment I hated him more than I've ever hated anything.

The plan hadn't changed. I was still going to take him down.

I shifted slightly, the better to get in a good rugby tackle...

"Mara!"

We both turned, to see Will sprinting down the passageway towards us. I cried out in relief as his figure blotted out the strip lighting, banged open the door and swung me effortlessly into his arms. I hadn't realised until now how much I'd been worrying about him, but now my shoulders seemed about a ton lighter I clung to him. He pressed a kiss into my neck, calming my shaking.

_What's wrong? _ He asked me privately.

_Will, it's Fred, he's the one behind it all..._

I was getting a tremendous headache...the pressure was building up behind my forehead in a way that suggested I was on track for a hell of a migraine. Will slowly, carefully, put me down-without taking his arms from around my waist- and turned to face my brother. My ex-brother, who looked pained to see us together.

They stared at each other, bodies tensed. Finally, Will spoke- the sound was like a thunderclap in the silent room.

"I don't know why the hell you're doing this, but we're going to stop it now."

"If you can." Fred said. His ashamed face had vanished to be replaced by a very ugly expression, and he held up the syringe. That reminded me of something...

"Alfred. Is there a cure for this virus?" I spoke so forcefully that both men started.

"Why should I-"

"Tell me_. _Is it in that syringe?_"_

"No."

"_Tell me!" _

Fred sighed reluctantly. "There isn't one. The syringe I'm holding contains the virus."

Everyone's gaze snapped to the syringe in his hand. I tried to lunge for it, but he sidestepped and left me grasping at thin air.

"GUARDS!" He yelled at the top of his voice.

Will leapt forwards and slammed him against the wall, covering his mouth- but the damage was done. I closed the door and leaned against it, head throbbing. Dimly, I heard pounding footsteps.

We were going to be caught.

I hated him.

Unless...there was another way.

And then I suddenly understood why I had such a pounding migraine. Being with Will kept my powers in check...but they weren't gone. Not in the slightest. And my headache? That was ten years' worth of anger trying to clamber out of my brain...ten years' worth of fury...enough to stop the guards and bring down the centre in one.

It would be one hell of a bang.

It would quite possibly kill us all.

It would most probably kill me.

The footsteps were getting closer...they had guns, too. The windows were blacked out- there was no way out of this laboratory except for through the door. I had a snap decision to make- one that wasn't going to involve Will getting hurt.

"Will." I said steadily. "When I say so, grab Fred and leg it."

Will's gaze flicked sideways to mine, and his eyes widened with horror. Fred knew me well enough (ha!) to guess the same thing, and he began to struggle against Will's confining arms.

"Mara. No. You can't."

"I'm the only one who can get you out." Fresh tears were spilling down my face, now. Angrily, I brushed them away on my sleeve. "I'll give you a window. You're going to take that chance and leave."

"No."

"For me."

"No. I can't just _leave _you."

"Yes. You have to."

"I'm not going to. Mara, I won't. I literally can't."

I took a huge step back, into the centre of the room. The footsteps were getting louder- they were on the same floor as us.

"Don't forget me, will you? I'm probably gonna get a whole new set of scars from this. Isn't it strange? I'd rather...rather die than see you dead. I didn't really plan for you to happen...but I'm glad it did..."

"No-" Will dropped Fred and lunged at me.

"I love you." I smiled tearfully, and closed my eyes.

Time stopped.

And then I dropped the barriers around my mind.

Energy flooded the room like a tsunami, a pulse of devastating force. The beakers crumbled into dust; the machines exploded, the benches cracked and broke; the windows exploded and daylight swamped the lab. Huge tremors rocked the floor, which cracked and buckled like so much aluminium foil. The door blew off its hinge with a bang, and the building vibrated with explosions.

_The biggest thing I've ever smashed is a car, and that was when I've been really angry. It gets worse the angrier I get- and the older I get..._this was the angriest I'd ever been, and my fury was tearing the base apart.

I was only half-aware of the outside world, but I saw Will leapt backwards to avoid a chunk of ceiling, and then was obscured by choking dust. Almost blinded by the falling masonry, I screamed his name, scanning the dust frantically for his silhouette, pinned in place by the outpouring of my power.

_Will! Will, speak to me! Where are you? _

No answer.

Terror pulsed through me, mixing with the power surge and making an extremely potent cocktail. Frantically, I tugged at my power, making a flimsy attempt to reconstruct my barriers, but- no, impossible. Impossible. More chunks of ceiling fell; the floor rippled. Will was somewhere in the middle of that! A fresh wave of panic pulsed through me; this was the legacy of my toxic gift: I couldn't even control my power, and yet I could rip apart a building and kill my Soulfinder.

No!

_Will!_

Making a fresh effort, I hauled in a deep breath, and tried to stop myself from unravelling. I was pouring everything I had into this, and it was killing me. I envisioned barriers, bricks, walls, anything...

"How are you doing this?" Fred had appeared from the swirling mists, face fuchsia, screaming at me. Fear flashed in his eyes- fear of _me. _"You're ruining _everything_! Make it stop!"

"I can't!" I screamed back.

"Make it stop- or I'll kill you!" Fred was much closer than I'd first thought; suddenly, he was striding across the floor, not seeming to notice it breaking up underneath his feet. No! As I watched, Fred neared, held up the syringe- the syringe holding the virus. And he brought it down in a swift arc...

I couldn't move- paralysed by my power...but mostly my pesky, longstanding love for him.

After everything, my own brother was going to be the cause of my downfall.

Then a fist flashed through the air, catching my brother square on the temple. He just had time for a startled look before he crumpled to the floor like a sack of potatoes. And Will stepped out of the fog, mists clinging to his body, looking like an avenging angel in all his alive, vibrant fury.

He was alive!

Alive!

I cried out in relief- but then the floor shifted, tilting to the right. We didn't have much time left.

"Mara, you've got to stop this!"

I looked up, up into Will's eyes. Despite only having known him for a few weeks, I knew his emotions like the steps of an intricate dance only the two of us could ever perform. And right now, I wasn't looking at fear. I was looking at love- alright, love and a good dollop of panic.

But it gave me the strength I needed; the strength to finish this.

I reached deep inside me- deeper than I'd ever reached before- and..._sucked _the power back inside me.

A blaze of pain ripped through me; I was burning up, I couldn't think- but I couldn't stop. Dimly I heard screams, but couldn't care about anything except for the agony. It was killing me; I was going to die any second-

The floor suddenly swam into focus, then blurred with tears. I was on my knees, gasping and coughing, but I was inexplicably _alive. _Disbelievingly, I checked my arms, legs- wiggled my fingers. I was still here!

Well, that was a surprise.

Rid of the disorienting blindness that my power had given me, I looked around. The terrible unravelling feeling was gone, but the rumbling continued. I'd ripped the building apart so much that it was falling down without my help. I was going to get out of here fast if I wanted to continue my lucky streak of cheating death.

"Mara? Mara, speak to me!" Will's panicked voice broke into my thoughts, and I looked up to see his face, twisted with fear, staring down at me. I looked up, and smiled weakly.

"Hey. We make a good team, eh?"

"Oh- thank god!" He swept me up into his arms, not bothering to hide his joy, and both of us were laughing with relief as he twirled me around and sealed my lips with a fiercely passionate kiss that burnt through me with a flame far stronger than the one I'd just been wrestling with. I cupped his face with my hands and kissed him back strongly, tasting peppermint and blood, his tongue tracing the outline of my lips, both of our faces wet.

A thundering brought me back to myself- the building was going to collapse!

"Get Fred!" I yelled to Will, half-falling back onto the tilted floor and swaying with tiredness. Every bone in my body felt like jelly, but I forced it onwards.

"Why-"

"Just do it, halfwit! He's my brother!"

"_Halfwit?!"_

"I can call you nincompoop if you prefer! Come on!"

Rolling his eyes, Will scooped him up roughly, and together we forged through the ruins of the door to where the corridor was crumbling onto the concrete floor. A large gap in the wall revealed the ground, a long way down. I skirted around the edge carefully, until we reached what had once been the stairs. Once. I had gone for a sweeping renovation, and removed them completely.

"You go down first, and catch me." I told Will, who frowned, but dumped Fred on a pile of rubble and lowered himself down slowly. The concrete groaned; chunks of rubble cascaded down around him. I hesitated- safe it was not.

"Get Fred down first." I told him, and looked around for my erstwhile brother. "Fred?"

Fred had vanished. With a surge of panic, I remembered-too late- his gift. He could disappear at will. It was just a wonder that he hadn't done it sooner.

Oh, great. Homicidal half-brother vs. half-dead ex-wrecking ball.

Some rubble to my left creaked- was that him? Or was it that light breeze? I spun in a circle, dizzy with tiredness and suffering from a touch of mild paranoia.

"Mara- get down here now!"

I turned to do as he said- before the freight train that was my invisible brother barrelled into my midriff and threw me backwards across the room. I screamed in shock as he let go-

Let go in time for me to fall through the hole in the corridor wall.

The last thing I heard was Will screaming my name, before the ground rushed up to meet me.

There was a horrible _thud, _and everything went black.


	17. Wheelchairs and Knitting

hings didn't exactly go as I'd hoped from there.

Pain exploded through every nerve, scorching all thoughts from my brain and obliterating everything else. I couldn't breathe- the world was black...were my eyes open or closed? I heard a drawn out moan...it might have been me.

"She's going into shock!"

"Somebody get a doctor!...Urgent!"

"...ing hell. Mara? Mara...stay...me. Can...hear me?"

Blackness swirled around the inside of my head, tuning me in and out of the real world like a faulty radio. Was I going to die?

Fair enough. Life had dealt me a pretty rough hand so far. Maybe the afterlife would be better...a never-ending rave. With free cocktails. I hoped that I'd get an awesome set of wings...

"Tranquilisers!"

Huh? What were they going to do to me? Where was I? I tried to move my arms, but the command got lost somewhere in the recesses of my mind. Then I couldn't find them...everything was going numb-

Mercifully, at that point, I blacked out.

* * *

I came to gradually, swimming up from a pool of blackness and emerging into...a kind of reddish-black that you get when looking at a bright light from behind closed eyelids. Softness beneath me told me that I was in bed- thank god- and I could _kind of _feel my limbs. The 'kind of' bit came from the fact that I felt like my internal organs had been replaced with cotton wool- everything felt hazy, even my brain.

So. What had happened and where was I?

I hitched a sigh, breathing in deeply, but a constricting sensation around my chest prevented me from inhaling further. There was a shuffling sensation and a screech, before the middle of my bed dipped downwards with a crackle. Something warm and dry touched my hand- I thought- and a crackle zipped up my veins.

"Mara? Can you hear me?"

I could, whoever they were...the voice was familiar.

"Come back." Muffled sob. "Wake up. Come back to us...me."

They were drawling their words with a heavy accent- not British- and I fought to clear my brain from the sedative or whatever they were feeding me. I felt that I ought to know who it was...

"I know you're fighting- you don't give up. Don't give up...come on, Cooper..."

There. I grasped a name from my foggy memory- an ordinary, but wonderful name.

Will.

It was Will!

And with that thought, memories started slotting back into place behind my eyes. A cupboard...the sea...a movie-esque rooftop kiss...ah! I was Mara Cooper, and that, that was Will Benedict. I heaved in a shocked breath- and, with an effort of will, opened my eyes.

Lightbulbs shone overhead like twin suns, and everything was bright, disinfectant white. The room must have taken some poor sucker hours to clean, because I couldn't as yet see a single spot of dirt anywhere. The furniture was pretty basic- a chair, my bed, a small bedside table with a vase of flowers on it. A hospital, then.

Will's face hovered at the edges of my vision, blurry with the tears fogging my eyes from the lights. His face was striped with several scratches, and spotted with bruises, which made for an interesting mix of patterns. Large hollows under his eyes and a crazily messy head of hair completed the homeless-but-handsome look rather effectively. Time- and something else- had carved a new vulnerability into his face that hadn't been there before. I had a horrible suspicion that I was the cause, and the urge to touch his face and wipe the sadness away crossed my mind. Sadly, I didn't think I could move my arms and do so.

I swallowed and tried to force a word through a dry mouth. "Where...where...where am I?"

"Mara!" His face lit up. "How're you feeling?"

"Rough."

"I know...but, God! You're awake! I mean, I didn't know...no, I did." Bemusement and happiness fought with each other on his face as he shoved both hands through his hair. Happiness won; a light kindled behind his eyes like a candle was being held there.

"Cheers." I croaked, forcing the words through a throat as dry as a desert. In summer.

"D'you...er...want any water?"

Boy, did I. "Yeah...please." I started to reach for it but my progress was hampered by, when I looked down, appeared to be several IV drips. What the hell had happened? Irritated, I started to try and pull them out, but Will's hand closed over mine, stopping me. I glared at him; he held up both hands in mock surrender.

"It's for your own good, you know."

_Don't I know it...actually, I don't. Can you tell me? And pass me some water. Please._

He half smiled, and pressed a button on the side of the bed. A whirring, and the front end of the bed winched up, converting itself into a backrest for me. Now I could see the room in all it's sterilised glory.

_Cool._

_I like to think so, _he grinned, and fetched a glass from the bedside table to hold it up to my lips. As it was, I couldn't even move my hands to stop this embarrassing display of helplessness- ears burning, I swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of icy, liquid bliss without choking, something, which, all things considered, gave me a certain satisfaction.

_Enough?_

_Yeah, thanks. _

His mind touched against mine, butterfly-light, and then withdrew as he went to put the glass away. Finally, finally, he came back, and I was ready to question him- with my mouth, now the sandpapery feeling had gone.

"What...why am I here, Will? I mean...what happened to me?"

His face closed; the vulnerable look swam behind his eyes. I hated that it was there.

"Don't...don't you remember?"

I remembered a fair amount of pain...I remembered falling off a building...

"You, er, fell off a building, Mara. About three stories...you just..." He shook his head- either with disbelief or horror, I wasn't sure. "...fell. I couldn't get out of that building fast enough- it was coming down anyway, it collapsed just after I got out."

"And?" I felt cruel, pushing him like that, but I needed to know. But his expression alone told me volumes.

"And...I called the ambulance. My family came a couple of minutes later- Xav managed to keep you from- you know...getting hurt too badly. Slipping away. Then they took you off to hospital..." He stopped, staring off into the distance- into the past.

"What...how long have I been out?"

"They kept you in a sedated coma for a couple of days...about three. You were unconscious for another day before that."

Four days?! Four days cooped up in a _hospital_? I jiggled about on the bed, suddenly impatient to be out, to feel the breeze against my face, to feel the sea against my legs. And Will...well, that explained the homeless look. Had he been sleeping in the hospital?

"Please tell me you took care of yourself."

He didn't meet my eyes. "I always do."

I shook my head with frustration, swallowed hard past the lump in my throat- and then another piece of the jigsaw slotted into place behind my eyes, and I gasped.

"Where's Tom? How's Tom?"

"Well, we have good news on that front."

Do we? I strained forwards, ignoring the uncomfortable pinching sensation in my chest.

"He's alive."

"Thank god." I exhaled, closing my eyes briefly in relief. "Conscious? And what about his power?"

"He's awake." Will said slowly, frowning. "We're not...really sure about his power yet, because it's so...well, it's like an extension of reading body-language. We're not sure how much is instinct and how much...ability."

At least he was alive. I offered up a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was up there, and then, unfortunately, my mind turned to my eldest brother. The smile slipped from my face, as the memories of our two-person raid on the base slunk into my head. Fred.

"Fred."  
"Yes." Will leaned forwards slightly, eyes widening, and, I think, pleased to have a diversion. "What d'you remember?"

"Everything." I whispered slowly. Fred's betrayal, his rage...my attempted murder. Should I be crying? I couldn't seem to find the tears. Instead, a hot, tight ball of anger rose inside me, almost choking me with its bitterness, with its futile rage.

"Mara..."

"Don't." I wanted badly to scrunch up my legs to my chest, to make a small, protective ball, which would stop the outside world from flooding in. I couldn't- I had to defend myself with language instead. "Don't...it's not his fault. It isn't his fault."

Will opened his mouth; I cut him off cold, wanting to believe my own hollow words. "It can't be...it must have been me that sent him over the edge. Me and you. It's all my fault."

"Don't say that. He made his choice long before that! It's not your fault, Mara." Will leant forwards; I leaned backwards, away from his words.

"No!" Finding strength from somewhere, I raised one arm- the one that didn't hurt as much- and shoved hard against his chest. "_You made him do it! I made him! It's not his fault!"_

And, to my shock, I burst into a storm of tears.

Will didn't say anything after that. Ignoring my hysterics, he leaned forwards and enfolded me in a hug that smelt of the outside, of the sea, of mint and cologne, and let me sob into his jumper- harsh, ripping sobs that came from the bottom of my stomach and seemed to tear my lungs with each breath. They didn't stop- the tears just kept on coming: tears for my brother, for my hurt, for everything I'd gone through in the past month. But he just held me, held me in that quiet, peaceful hospital room, and simply that comforted me more than any empty words could have done.

Finally, there was nothing left.

I choked back a huge sniff and let my head fall against Will's chest, which was, sadly for him, a little damp. He said nothing; just tightened his arm around me, letting me make the first move.

"Sorry."

"It's nothing."

"Yes, it is." I looked up at him. "I haven't really been easy to deal with, have I?"

"Yes, you have." He attempted.

I gave a watery grin. "Liar."

He tried to maintain the poker face, but it collapsed under the weight of a reluctant smile. "Okay, fine. But, hey. Let's hope it gets better from now on. How are you feeling now?"

"Like an elephant sat on my head."

He snorted out loud; I felt his chest vibrate. "That's more like you."

"What's like me?"

A pause. "Alive."

Alive?! Well, I'd been called worse.

Just then, somebody knocked briskly on the door- and then opened it, defeating the point of having knocked at all. A lab coat stepped through it, and I instinctively shrank back into the sheets, panic spiking in my stomach, and rubbed a hand over my eyes, trying to disguise the fact I'd been crying like a complete girl.

"How are you feeling, Miss Cooper?" The scientist smiled at me- no, doctor. It was a doctor.

"A bit rough." I told him- honestly, for once.

"Well, that's not surprising, since you fell off a building." He smiled, and I shot a surprised glance at Will- how much did the hospital know of how I'd managed to plummet three stories onto hard concrete?

"...in fact, you cracked several ribs, fractured a leg and sustained severe internal bruising to some major organs. Factor in extreme exhaustion, a broken finger or two and several nasty cuts, and you're quite lucky to be alive." He beamed over his clipboard at my stupefied face. "You're going to feel like hell for a couple of days, but that's a small price to pay for being alive, eh?"

"I...guess so." Small price?! Had he ever broken a bone? It bloody _hurt!_

Will, perhaps sensing that I was ever-so-slightly miffed, squeezed my hand reassuringly. It worked- kind of.

"How long will it take to heal?"

He sucked in a 'ooh, I couldn't really say' breath. "I'd say...about three months."

_Three months?!_

Seeing my expression, he smiled. "I'd suggest you'd get a hobby like knitting or reading."

Did he think I was a grandma? I...knitting!

"Do you feel in any pain at the moment?"

"No."

"Well, if you do, just ask your young man to ring for help." He smiled ingratiatingly again.

He was really beginning to irritate me. Maybe it was the aftershock from my mini breakdown, but I seemed a little more _irritable _than usual...

Fortunately for my temper, the examination was soon over. It seemed that apart from the multiple fractures, internal bleeding and bruising, I was in tiptop health, and could be released in a couple of days, if all went well. Then he took out the drips- cue a very uncomfortable five minutes while I squirmed and tried not to yank them out- and left with a parting shot.

I would be released in a wheelchair.

"A _wheelchair." _I said, horrified, as soon as the door closed. "How am I going to survive? This is crazy! How am I going to dance? What am I going to do?!"  
"Oh, I don't know...knitting?" Will asked innocently. I thwacked him on the shoulder. "Careful, that almost hurt."

"Oh, God save me." I buried my face in my hands. "Please, please give me some good news."

"Since you asked so nicely." He grinned, and started playing with my fingers. I concentrated on the feeling of his fingers- it was oddly soothing. "Whilst you were...unconscious, the Savant Net got to work on the virus."

"Virus?"

"Well, yeah. It's still contagious, so it's still spreading, but Uri- with help from me and Xav- came up with the answer." He paused for dramatic effect, chest swelling with pride. "Wait for it...dundundundun..."

"I'm waiting."

"Shush...tension building...a _vaccine!" _

The word was so unexpected it left me stumped. "Sorry, what?"

"You heard me. We took some samples from the people who'd already fought the disease and kept at least a little of their powers. Ta-da- antibodies! And a weakened form of the virus. So, we just diluted it, and, well, made a vaccine. Good, eh?"

"Amazing." I said fervently. "But...there shouldn't be that many more cases now, should there? I mean, we kind of blew up their HQ."

"Well, you well and truly blew up their base- we haven't heard so much as a peep from them, and they've lost all of their equipment and records anyway. But your...brother could potentially be on the loose, and we have to face the fact that he will still know the formula. So- vaccine! Tell me I'm brilliant."

"Oh, I don't know..."

He leaned in closer, and brushed his lips along my jawline. Electricity sparked along my skin, and my heart rate kicked up a notch in a way that I really didn't think was healthy for a recently-sedated hospital invalid. "What am I not good at?"

"Subtlety, for one." My voice was suddenly husky, and I swallowed hard. "Modesty?"

"I'm very modest. And I'm brilliant."

"No comment."

"Okay, how's this for brilliance- the vaccine has to be administered all over the world, to various Savant groups through the Net. Somebody needs to travel around these countries- all they'd have to do would be to sit in a wheelchair and give out injections. All expenses paid, awesome time guaranteed. They even hire a devoted boyfriend to push the wheelchair. So, how's _that _for brilliant? Fancy going travelling?"

"I..."

"What?" His face fell. "You don't want to?"

"No, I do." I confessed. "Just...give me a month to look after Tom. But, yes. Yes, I want to travel. Yes!"

"Ha!" Will yelled, and leapt off his seat. The blanket went flying as he picked me up- plaster cast and all- and swung me in a dizzying circle. The walls blurred; I could barely see for laughing.

"That _is _brilliant!" I told him, once the world had stopped spinning. A gigantic grin had split his face in two- and it was stretching across mine, too. The future had opened into a vista of sunniness...

So sunny, in fact, that I felt I had to amend my statement slightly.

"_You, _Will Benedict, are brilliant."

He beamed. "That's better."

And I reached up with my good hand and pulled his silky head down to mine for a butterfly-sweet kiss.


	18. Loose Ends

**Hey all. Here it is- the last installment! (Maybe). Thanks for all of the encouragement and reviews-they've all been fantastic. Enjoy-if you're still interested, I'm writing a sequel. Thanks!**

_Three months later_

"So what you're saying is, you can't come to see me dance because, and I quote, _I'm on the other side of the world_?!"

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"_Mara_! When were you going to _tell us you've moved_?"

I smiled, tilting my head away from the phone to cut out Liv's rising shrieks. In front of me, a tree-covered hill sloped down to where the Pacific Ocean roared and crashed against the sandy beach, tinted gold and silver by the setting sun.

"I've not really moved...it's not _permanent. _We're still travelling. Anyway, you can dance with James, can't you?"

"Yes, I can..." She said speculatively. "You know, I was thinking about asking him for a coffee...he's _hot_."

"Mmm..." I knew James well enough to guess that he wouldn't take her up on the offer. And Liv well enough to know that her attention would shift in about two weeks' time. "I can alwayswatch your dance routine on the internet, you know. Spiritual support. Anyway, I was thinking about starting to compete again..."

"No way. You'll beat me and you know it." Liv sighed dramatically. "With your sexy dance partner, James."

"Not as sexy as Will." I told her, with nothing less than an inward smirk.

"Aaah yes, I forgot about Lover Boy." I heard her scowl. "Still going strong, then? Jealous!"

"Yup." And hopefully we would be for a long time, if I had anything to do with it. "We're renting a bach on the Coromandel."  
"You know I haven't the faintest idea where that is. Somewhere in the land of the kiwis? Your accent sounds stronger already."

"It's amazing how fast you pick things up. Yeah, we're on the coast up North. It's beautiful up here, the pohutukawa trees are blooming and-"

"Yeah, yeah, the sun's shining. Rub it in, why don't you? No, actually, send some of it our way. It's bloody freezing over here! And not even a snow day..."

I smiled, and opened the sliding door that led out onto the wooden balcony. A warm breeze caressed my skin and the planks rubbed against my bare feet as I walked over to lean against the railings. It was a gorgeous summer over here...and the view was spectacular. For once, I felt completely happy- no, more. At peace.

"Don't feel too sorry for yourself, eh, Liv?"

"Shut up. I'm _allowed _to feel sorry for myself. I'm single and it's Valentine's Day!"

"Oh, yeah..."

Her voice climbed another couple of octaves. Soon it'd be ultrasonic. "_Oh yeah?! _Please tell me you celebrated something! You're going out with one extremely sexy guy. God, Mara, sometimes I wonder! I wouldn't be surprised if..."

I tuned out of her Valentines rant and stared out across the beach. I'd completely forgotten about the date- to be honest, I'd completely lost track of time in the last couple of months. The doctor had been true to his word, releasing me from hospital after four days had passed, but by that time I'd been climbing the walls (and no, I hadn't taken up knitting). I glanced down at my leg- the golden tan I was getting made all of my scars stand out more, especially the newest one where the bone of my shattered leg had broken through the skin. It was ugly and I didn't like to look at it any more than I absolutely had to; it was only recently that I'd stopped wearing jeans to hide it. Fortunately, I could now walk without a limp.

Thinking about it, I could dance, if I wanted to. I hadn't yet...perhaps I was scared to try.

"MARA! YOU THERE?"

I jumped and stared over my shoulder at the formerly quiet house, which was now shaking slightly. I paused, before responding in typical Cooper fashion.

"YEAH! WAIT A SEC!"

"Bloody hell!" My phone squealed. "What was that?! My ears are ringing from the sonic afterbite!"

"Aaah...sorry, Liv. Gotta go. Family business..."

"Ah, the elusive Thomas. What's he up to these days?"

"Nothing much. Just, you know, chilling." I said casually. In fact, Tom had been staying up at our bach for the last couple of days, getting ready for his grand re-entry into New Zealand society. He had a job ready, thankfully, as a chef (what else?) in a posh restaurant in the glorious setting of Queenstown, as well as a rented house. We'd spent several days down in there, just us two, sorting out his furniture and decking out his new pad. Needless to say, I'd had a lot more fun than him- the place now had a decidedly feminine touch. Well, hopefully he'd have plenty of time to sort that out in the upcoming months.

"_Chilling _doesn't sound like your brother at all." Liv commented with uncharacteristic insight. "Shouldn't he be, I don't know, frantically whipping up new dishes for your pleasure? Unless, of course, you're getting it from somewhere else..."

I ignored her suggestion, and decided that I'd better cut the conversation short right there. "Well, I really have to dash, Liv. Ring you soon."

"You'd better- with all the details." She sighed. "I _still _don't know how you managed to land a catch like Will Benedict. Tell me the secret someday, won't you?"

"I don't know, either." I confessed. "But try with James...maybe he'll be unable to resist your feminine _allure._"

"And maybe I'll turn into a winged pig." She retorted. "Toodle-oo, o bronzed one."

"Later. Bye!"

With a sigh of relief, I terminated the call and placed the phone just-so on the railing. There was no wind; it shouldn't fall.  
"TOM! YOU STILL THERE?"

"SADLY! HURRY UP, I'M GOING SOON!"

Muttering a swear word, I left the evening glow and padded barefoot through the house. The owner had a sea fetish; all available surfaces were decked out with shells, little model boats, starfish-framed mirrors...it was actually quite cute, but perhaps the sailing-ship duvet covers and towels were taking things a step too far. For the two weeks that this had been our home, it had become a sort of safe haven, a place to settle down and relax after all of the stuff that had happened last year. Going and visiting the different towns, learning to surf, climbing, rockpool fishing...it all seemed rather unreal after everything we'd been through.

The living room and kitchen were on the top floor, so I slid down the staircase to where the bedrooms and front door were. Tom was waiting for me, skin bronzed like mine from the sun- I guess we were rare proof that redheads didn't just burn- and eyes bluer than grey. He held out his arms, and I leaned into his comfortable, familiar hug. We'd grown even closer over the last three months- for obvious reasons.

"I'm gonna miss you, Mar."

I swallowed a lump in my throat. "I'll miss you too, lummox."

"_Lummox? _You're going to have to pay double at my restaurant for that." He rested his chin on top of my head. "I'll tell the waiters to keep an eye out for you- they'll flog you the most expensive stuff."

"As long as they don't spit in my food. In fact, I'll tip you double to make sure they don't."

"Make it triple."

"Done."

He heaved a sigh. I knew he was pleased to have this job- cooking still meant the world to him- but the prospect of being so far apart from each other was rather daunting. I had Will now, Tom had...well, nobody, as of yet. We weren't even sure if he had a Soulfinder...he had been completely stripped of his power. He was, if possible, ex-Savant. I knew it hurt him, the loss of his power, but he'd learned to live with it. Did the afflicted still have Soulfinders, or not? I hoped so- with all my heart.

Outside, a horn beeped irritably. "That's the taxi."

I sniffed back traitor tears. "Better go, then. Got your train ticket?"

"Yep. Roll on the four hour journey...funfunfun. Where's Will, anyway? He's not seeing me off?"

"Maybe he's too upset."  
"I'm sure he's sobbing quietly in a corner somewhere." Tom snorted. "This week's been great, Mar."

"We've loved having you."

"'We'. Ugh. I can't get used to the fact you're sleeping in the same bed." He tapped my nose. "Don't get up to _too _much, eh?"

I thwacked his shoulder. "Shut up! That's your cue to go, Thomas Cooper."

"You know I love you."

He flashed me a cheerful grin, shouldered his rucksack, and waved goodbye, silhouetted against the evening sun like a saint. The light burnished his hair to a bright, fiery golden halo. Saint Thomas. He'd been practically holy to come out of this mess relatively unscathed...

"I know." I whispered, biting down hard on my lip.

I followed him to the door, watched him get into the taxi, waving the whole while. Only once he'd gone did I let a few drops slide down my cheeks. I knew Tom would be alright- he was a Cooper, after all, as well as the grand age of twenty-five years old- but still. It was high time that we both started to _live. _Live properly, not crippled by Fred's toxic legacy. Tom would be magnificent- I could feel it in my bones. The best chef in New Zealand. He'd find love- I knew it, the beautiful, kind girl that he deserved. He'd make pots of money and found his own restaurant. And, hopefully, the Savant Net wouldn't touch him again. And who knew...perhaps we'd even find my mother again.

The three months which had elapsed since the raid on the base had been hard in more than one way. I'd been recovering from my broken leg, and hatred of the fact that I couldn't move had made me a real terror to live with. Tom had been extremely weak from the illness and couldn't do much without becoming tired. Add to that the fact that both of us started getting regular nightmares- literally screaming nightmares- and you could see that the Cooper family had been completely shattered by our elder brother. The other brother. It was still hard to believe that Fred had had it in him to almost kill me, to try and decimate an entire population. I tried to think of him as two people- lovely, kind brother Fred and psycho Fred- to attempt to maintain my sanity and preserve what remained of his memory. I wondered if Helene's death hadn't affected him mentally in more ways than we'd first realised.

_Hey, you. Still alive? _I smiled as Will's mind gently prodded mine. Slowly, I stepped out of the door and into the warm golden sunshine, letting the gravel path scrape my feet.

_Just about. How come you didn't come and see off Tom?_

_Ahh...shoot. He's gone already?_

_Yeah. _I paused, and added mischievously, _We suspected you were overcome with grief at his leaving and had to lock yourself in the bathroom 'til you calmed down._

_Damn it, Cooper. How did you know? _

_Woman's intuition. D'you want a hanky?_

_What I _want, he told me playfully, _is for you to hotfoot down to the beach. Come on, baby-doll. It's Valentine's Day._

I grinned. _I thought somebody told you, once, never to call them that._

_Come on, sweet cheeks._

_Only for you. _

And with that, I closed the connection, before letting out my breath in a happy sigh. Ah, love...

A passing toot reminded me that I was standing in the middle of the road, smiling like an idiot. I flipped the tooter in question a certain hand gesture, before sprinting inside for my jandals- flipflops, to you non-Kiwis out there.

One quick check in the mirror later revealed that I wasn't looking _too _awful, despite not wearing make up for once- my hair had bleached lighter in the summer weather, making it seem more fiery than normal, and my eyes stood out azure against my browner skin. So did all of my scars. It had been a leap of faith to put on a dress today- the only one I owned, actually- but hey, it was Valentine's Day. I trusted Will to tell me if I looked hideous- though hopefully more subtly than just blurting it out.

Then I sprinted over the dusty road, down the winding tree-lined track, and onto the pebbles that fringed the sandy beach, jandals slapping the rocky path, skirt swishing around my legs, battling a path through the undergrowth.

Will was there- of course. He stood a little way away, right where the shoreline kissed the incoming waves and gurgled around his bare feet. He didn't seem to notice me, until I crept up close behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Jesus!" He jumped about a foot.

"Nice to meet you." I grinned. "But you can call me Mara for short."

He raised both eyebrows, before slipping an arm around my waist. "And how is the lovely Mara today?"

"Alright." I conceded. "But some idiot asked her to come down to the beach today. I can't see him, so I'll have to go for the good-looking anonymous stranger instead."

"Is that really so bad?" He leaned in closer, pressing his lips against my collarbone. A little spark of fire followed the trail of his mouth, and I closed my eyes to try and concentrate.

"I'll make allowances for the good-looking stranger." I told him. He rolled his eyes at that, and kissed me. I forgot everything else as a wave of electricity swept over my skin, and kissed back, savouring the taste of sea salt on his skin. Heat swirled in my stomach, and coiled lower.

A sudden thought made me pull back quickly, unsure of myself. Will groaned involuntarily, and I flushed scarlet.

"Minx."

"Flirt." I retorted. "Will...I got a letter from Dom."

"Dom? Who's Dom?" He looked suspicious.

"Hold on to your hairnet. He's leader of the Savant Net in London...he wants to know whether he can put us in touch with the Net over here."

His face reflected the uncertainty I was feeling inside. "What...d'you think?"

"I dunno." I shrugged. "I was hoping we'd be on the move for a while yet."

"Really?" His eyes lit up. "You want to go travelling?"

"Yeah." I told him. I did. The weeks of travel- even in a wheelchair- had ignited my passion for adventure with a vengeance. "I haven't seen enough of the world yet...anywhere but the Alps, thank you."

"Anywhere you want." He promised me, squeezing me tight around the waist with enthusiasm. "Puerto Rico, Macchu Picchu, Ayers Rock, Delhi...anywhere! Hey, the Olympics is next year..."

"Just promise me something." I told him, leaning back as he moved forwards. "We have to have a base somewhere. No aimless travelling; that's the best way to lose yourself."

"Deal." He told me, grinning. "And...do you mind if I keep a few tabs on the Net?"

"Nope." And I didn't. It wasn't their fault I'd lost my brother; he'd done that himself. It was a business, pure and simple. Businesses had casualties...but I'd need time away from it to recover.

"The world is ours then, baby!" He hugged me close, both of us beaming with the promise of the future.

"Can't wait." And then- "Hey, Will..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think my power's gone?"

For three months, there hadn't been a peep from my latent power. Despite the feeling of freedom that brought- which I relished- I couldn't help wondering where it was...and whether my attempt to hold it back in the collapsing base had imprisoned it beyond recall. I hadn't dared to summon it since then, for fear of losing control again. Despite that, a small, secret part of me missed it- missed the complete power that I held in those moments, where my every fingertip contained the power to destroy. Was I still a true Savant- or was I like Tom?

"Dunno." He told me. "Here-try this branch."

A sea-worn, battered piece of driftwood was offered- old, and fragile. I looked and him- and then back at the driftwood. "Really?"

"No. Just teasing."

Teasing? I'd show him! Focussing every inch of concentration on the log, I breathed in, digging deep inside me, letting the outside world drift away- there was nothing but the sighing of the sea, me, and the log.

I breathed out.

The log creaked. A tiny crack ran up its side.

Will snorted. "Is that-"

Then, with a groan, the entire thing collapsed in on itself in a pile of matchsticks.

"Ha!" I laughed triumphantly. "Gotcha!"

"Oh...you can still beat me to a pulp then." Will looked crestfallen.

"Shush, you. I can do better things than beat people to a pulp."

"Like dance, perhaps?" He grinned slyly, eyes lighting up like there was a candle behind them, turning dark brown to amber. "I remember you saying that you'd teach me to Charleston one day..."

"Dance." I said wistfully.

"Dance." He agreed. "Come on, show us your moves."

"What if you're better than me?"

"Then you have full permission to tie my shoelaces together." He winked, and I smiled reluctantly.

"You're on. But I warn you- I take no prisoners."

"I'm already a prisoner-in your heart." Will grinned cheesily, and clapped a hand over his heart.

"Give over." I scoffed. "I don't need that soppy cheese. I'll love you without that."

I suddenly stilled, realising what I'd said. But my Soulfinder only smiled gently, and traced the outline of my cheek with his finger.

"I love you too."

And with that, I laughed, kissed him hard, and linked an arm over his shoulder.

And, then, framed by the wind and the waves, I began to teach him how to dance.

* * *

The man stared at the two figures moving together on the beach. They moved awkwardly, but increasing in fluidity every second. As he watched, the girl tripped and fell against the boy's chest. He knocked her legs out from underneath her, and swung her in a wide circle while she shouted with indignation and laughter. Red hair- so unlike his own- and dark brown blended together in one long swirl of earthiness. Their voices barely reached him from where he was staring- a clifftop which overlooked the sheltered cove. Maybe that was just as well- they looked too happy...too _in love. _

He snarled disgustedly; spit blowing away in the wind. They wouldn't be for too much longer, if he had anything to do with it. Visions of a laughing, blonde woman danced through his head- would she have wanted this for them?- but he swiped them aside. Those two...they'd brought down his operation. All he'd ever worked for...gone. He didn't have a plan yet, but soon, soon, he would. And then they wouldn't be laughing any more.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, rational thought told him that he was mad, that this was his sister he was looking at, no matter what she'd done. But he'd lost most of his reason when the base in Calais had collapsed on top of him. Barely alive, he'd staggered from the wreckage a day later, fuelled only by the thought of revenge. It was all that was keeping him going even now.

He grinned savagely and bared his teeth at the wind. He had a feeling that, despite the Savant formula being rendered useless by the vaccines, the criminal ring would still be interested in his inner knowledge of the Net.

And then...well, life would be his for the taking.

_The End?_


End file.
